Narrative of privations and sufferings of United States officers and soldiers while prisoners of war in the hands of the rebel authorities. Being the report of a commission of inquiry, appointed by the United States Sanitary Commission. With an appendix, containing the testimony

,

•

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

NARRATIVE

PRIVATIONS AND SUFFERINGS

UNITED STATES OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS

PRISONERS OF WAR

15 THE HANDS OF THB

REBEL AUTHORITIES.

BEING THE REPORT OF A COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, APPOINTED BY THE
UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION.

WITH AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING THE TESTIMONY.

PRINTED FOR THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

" BV

KING & BAIRD, PRS., 607 SANSOM ST., PHILAD'A.
1864.

" FOR I WAS AN HUNGRED, AND YE GAVE ME NO MEAT : I WAS THIRSTY, AND
YE GAVE ME NO DRINK : I WAS A STRANGER, AND YE TOOK ME NOT IN : NAKED,
AND YE CLOTHED ME NOT: SICK, AND IN PRISON, AND YE VISITED ME NOT.

" LORD, WHEN SAW WE THEE AN HUNGRED, OR ATHIRST, OR A STRANGER, OR
NAKED, OR SICK, OR IN PRISON, AND DID NOT MINISTER UNTO THEE ?

" VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, INASMUCH AS YE DID IT NOT TO ONE OF THE LEAST
OF THESE, YE DID IT NOT TO ME."

MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION.

VALENTINE MOTT, M.D., LL.D.,

EX.PRESIDENT OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
NEW YORK, AND EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SURGERY j FELLOW OF
KING AND QUEEN'S COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF IRELAND j HON
ORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY
OF LONDON, ETC., ETC.

Chairman of the Commission.

EDWARD DEL AFIELD, M.D.,

PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF NEW
YORK, AND EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF OBSTETRICS AND THE DISEASES
OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN ; PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL
OPHTHALMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, ETC., ETC.

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS WILKINS, ESQ.
ELLERSLIE WALLACE, M.D.,

PROFESSOR OF OBSTETRICS AND THE DISEASES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, ETC.

HON. J. I. CLARK HARE,

JUDGE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILA
DELPHIA.

REV TREADWELL WALDEN,

RECTOR or ST. CLEMENT'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.

(3)

M316673

CONTENTS.

Jlesolutions of the Standing Committee of the United
States Sanitary Commission, appointing the Com
mission of Inquiry 13

THE NARRATIVE AND REPORT OF THE COM
MISSIONERS 19

I.

Reports of Cruelties in the Beginning of the War — Mutual Re
crimination of North and South — Later and more Authentic
Reports — Heart-rending Condition of Returned Prisoners — The
Congressional Inquiry — The Sanitary Commission Appoints a
Commission of Inquiry — Range of the Investigation — Visit of
the Commissioners to Annapolis and Baltimore — Appearance of
the Returned Prisoners — Living Skeletons — Testimony Taken
— The Claim of the Rebel Government and People — The
Humane Principles of Modern Warfare 19-20

II.

Almost invariable Robbery of Prisoners — Description of Libby
Prison — Overcrowded Rooms — Barely room to lie down — Ragged
and verminous Blankets — Shooting at prisoners without warning
— Instances of Shooting in Libby — Same in Danville and Atlanta
— Insufficient and disgusting Rations — Slow Starvation — With
holding and thieving of Boxes sent from the North — Sufferings
of the Officers— The Cells— Inhumanity to the Dead— The
Mining of Libby 30-44

III.

Description of Belle Isle — No shelter provided from the heat in
Summer, or from the cold in Winter — Sufferings during the late
severe Winter — Expedients to avoid Freezing to Death — Men
Frozen to death — The Loathsome and inadequate Food — Men

(5)

6 CONTENTS.

perishing from Hunger — Unavoidable Filth of the Camp and of
the Men on account of the Rules— Neglect of the Sick— Cruelty
to the Sick — Incidents of cruelty in Hospitals 45-55

IV.

JThe men as they appeared when brought on board the flag of
truce boat and into the Hospitals — Distressing spectacle —
Hunger, nakedness, filthiness — Disease and death from starva
tion and cold — Cries for food — Imbecility and insanity of many
— Opinions of the surgeons — The Medical Report of the Com
mission 56-G3

V.

Reported Suffering of the Rebel Army, and Embarrassment
of the Rebel Government for want of Supplies, as an Excuse for
Denying Food and Clothing to United States Soldiers — The
Impossibility of there being any such Deficiency — The Physical
Condition of the Rebel Army perfect — Facts drawn from Rebel
testimony 64-74

VI.

The treatment of Rebel Prisoners at United States Stations
— The humane orders of the Government — Scene at Lincoln
Hospital — Interior of the Station at Fort Delaware — The Hos
pital on David's Island — Johnson's Island — Point Lookout —
Tender care of sick and wounded Rebels at all these Stations —
Kind treatment of the wounded prisoners — Abundant shelter, fuel,
clothing, and food furnished them — Facilities for bathing and
exercise — Small mortality — No robbing — No shooting — No abuse
— Christian burial of the dead — The contrast of the Union and
Rebel prisoners at the moment of exchange 75-90

VII.

The three points now investigated — The conclusion of the
Commissioners — These privations and sufferings were designedly
inflicted — The late appeal to Divine and human judgment upon
"their cause by the rebel government — The spirit of that cause
identical with the spirit which originated and defends it 91-101

THE MEDICAL REPORT... . 105

COITTENTS.

APPENDIX.

EVIDENCE TAKEN BY THE COMMISSION.

EVIDENCE RELATING TO TREATMENT OF UNION
PRISONERS BY THE REBELS.

EVIDENCE OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE
UNITED STATES ARMY, RETURNED AFTER CON
FINEMENT IN REBEL PRISONS.

TESTIMONY OF PRIVATES AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS TAKEN AT
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND.

Deposition of Private Joseph Grider, Tennessee 129

Private Jackson O. Broshers, Indiana 131

" Corporal W. M. Smith, Kentucky 133

" Sergeant A. P. Jones, Massachusetts 134

" Private William D. Foote, New York.. 135, 143

' ' Private Robert Morrison, Ohio 137

" Private George Dingrnan, Michigan 139

Private Charles II. Allen, New York 140

" Private Frank Eichelberger, Kansas 141

" Private Daniel McMann, New York 142

Private Walter S. Smith, New York 143

" Private William W. Wilcox, Ohio 145

" Private Hiram J. Neal, Maine 148

" Private Charles F. Pfounstiel, Maryland... 149

0 CONTENTS.

TESTIMONY OF COMMISSIONED AND MEDICAL OFFICERS.

Deposition of Captain A. R. Calhoun, Kentucky 151

Testimony, by letter, of Lieutenant-colonel Farnsworth,

Connecticut 155

Testimony, additional, by letter, of Lieutenant-colonel

Farnsworth, C onnecticut 161

Deposition of Surgeon Nelson D. Ferguson, New York... 165

" Surgeon D. W. Richards, Pennsylvania 168

EVIDENCE OF UNITED STATES ARMY SURGEONS IN
CHARGE OF UNION HOSPITALS AT ANNAPOLIS AND
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, TO WHICH RETURNED
UNION PRISONERS WERE BROUGHT FROM RlCH-

MOND, VA.

Testimony of Surgeon B. A. YanderKieft, General Hos
pital Division No. 1, Annapolis 169

Testimony, by letter, of Surgeon W. S. Ely, General

Hospital Division No. 1, Annapolis 172

Testimony of Surgeon G. B. Parker, General Hospital

Division No. 2, Annapolis 176, 178

Testimony of Surgeon De Witt C. Peters, Jarvis General

Hospital, Baltimore 179

Testimony of Surgeon A. Chapel, West's Buildings Hos
pital, Baltimore 182

EVIDENCE OF EYE-WITNESSES.

Testimony of Miss D. L. Dix 184

Testimony of Joseph R. Abbott, Special Relief Agent

United States Sanitary Commission 188

Quarterly Report of the Hospitals for Federal prisoners

in Richmond, by Surgeon-General, C. S. A 192

CONTENTS. 9

EVIDENCE RELATING TO UNITED STATES STATIONS
FOR REBEL PRISONERS.

Letter from Quartermaster- General Meigs, United States

Army 197

Circular Orders of Colonel Hoffman, United States Com
missary-General of Prisoners 203

FORT DELAWARE.

Testimony of Captain Gilbert S. Clark 199, 212

" Captain S. R. Craig 211

Captain George W. Ahl 212

" Lieutenant A. G. Wolf. 214, 218

" Surgeon H. R. Silliman 217

" Surgeon Colin Arrott 219

Special Order to the Guard 215

DAVID'S ISLAND, NEW YORK.

Deposition of Surgeon Augustus Yan Cortlandt 220

Surgeon G. W.Edwards 222

Surgeon John Howe 223

Surgeon William Badger 223

" Surgeon George Badger 223

" Surgeon A. K Brockway 223

" Surgeon William C. Pryer 223

Chaplain Robert Lowry 225

JOHNSON'S ISLAND, OHIO.

Deposition of Surgeon Charles P. Wilson ..................... 227

Surgeon J. Woodbridge ......................... 229

Surgeon Henry Evertman ....................... 232

George C. Huntington .......................... 234

"

10 CONTENTS.

EVIDENCE OF REBEL PRISONERS RELATING TO RA
TIONS, CLOTHING, SHELTER, AND HOSPITAL TREAT
MENT IN THE REBEL ARMY, AND TO THEIR
CONDITION AT UNITED STATES STATIONS FOR
PRISONERS OF WAR.

TESTIMONY TAKEN AT LINCOLN HOSPITAL, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Deposition of W. H. Ferguson, Mississippi 241

" W. 0. Quarles, Alabama 243

" L. A. Griffin, South Carolina 243

" P. H. Reese, Georgia 243

" J. F. Davidson, Georgia 244

" Yirgil Carroll, Virginia 244

" S. P, Twedy, Yirginia 245

" Joshua Barker, South Carolina 245

" C. A. Bowman, North Carolina 245

TESTIMONY TAKEN AT DE CAMP GENERAL HOSPITAL, DAVID'S
ISLAND, N. Y.

Deposition of A. B. Barron, Georgia 246

" W. M. Farmer, Georgia 24T

" D. F. Prince, North Carolina 248

" Joseph Whichard, North Carolina 249

" Michael Sutton, North Carolina 250

TESTIMONY TAKEN AT FORT DELAWARE.

Deposition of G. S. Holer, Yirginia 251

" Henry Daniel, Georgia 251

" William Sharp, Georgia 252

J. S. Moore, Mississippi 253

L. S. Crews, Yirginia 254

" K. D. Benefield, Georgia 255

CONTENTS. 11

SUPPLEMENT.

Account of the sufferings of Union Prisoners of War, at

Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia 259

Map of the Stockade Prison at Andersonville, Georgia... 261

Memorial of Union Prisoners confined at Andersonville,

Georgia, to the President of the United States 211

Letter of Major-General Butler, United States Commis
sioner of Exchange, to Col. Ould, the Confederate
Commissioner 2t 5

EXTRACTS from the Minutes of Proceedings of the
Standing Committee of the UNITED STATES SANI
TARY COMMISSION.

823 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

May igtb, 1864.

Resolved, That Dr. ELLERSLIE WALLACE, Hon.
J. I. CLARK. HARE, and the Rev. TREADWELL
WALDEN, of Philadelphia, and Dr. VALENTINE
MOTT, Dr. EDWARD DELAFIELD and GOUVER-
NEUR M. WILKINS, Esq., of New York, be re
spectfully requested, to act as a Commission for
ascertaining, by inquiry and investigation, the true
physical condition of prisoners, recently discharged
by exchange, from confinement at Richmond and
elsewhere, within the Rebel lines ; whether they
did, in fact, during such confinement, suffer materi
ally for want of food, or from its defective quality,
or from other privations or sources of disease ; and
whether their privations and sufferings were design
edly inflicted on them by military or other authority
of the Rebel Government, or were due to causes
which such authorities could not control. And that
the gentlemen above named be requested to visit
such camps of paroled or discharged prisoners as
may be accessible to them, and to take, in writing,

(13)

14: RESOLUTIONS OF STANDING COMMITTEE.

the depositions of so many of such prisoners as may
enable them to arrive at accurate results ; and to
adopt such other means of investigation as they may
think proper.

823 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

May jiJ"/, 1864.

Voted to request of the Committee of Investigation
on the condition of exchanged Union prisoners, the
examination not only of Union prisoners, but also
of some of the Rebel prisoners, recently captured,
with reference to the question whether they have,
while in the Confederate service, suffered like priva
tions to those experienced by the Federal captives.

The above, is a correct copy from the Minutes.

J. FOSTER JENKINS,
General Secretary of the United States Sanitary Commission.

September, 1864.

The COMMISSIONERS appointed in the foregoing
Resolution, by the STANDING COMMITTEE of the
UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION, respectfully
submit the following NARRATIVE AND REPORT —
drawn from the mass of evidence collected by them,
and printed in the Appendix — as the result of
their inquiry and investigation.

V. MOTT,
EDWD. DELAFIELD,
Gouv. MOR. WILKINS,
ELLERSLIE WALLACE,
J. I. CLARK HARE,
TREADWELL WALDEN.

(15)

COPIES

PHOTOGRAPHS OF UNION SOLDIERS,

AFTER THEIR RETURJC FROM

IMPRISONMENT AT BELLE ISLE.

Accurately Copied from the Original Photographs taken at United
States General Hospital, Division No. 1, Annapolis, Maryland ; and
now in the possession of the United States Sanitary Commission.

THE

NARRATIVE AND REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSION.

(17)

Reports of Cruelties in the Beginning of the War — Mutual Recrimina
tion of North and South — Later and more Authentic Reports —
Heart-rending C®ndition of Returned Prisoners — The Congressional
Inquiry — The Sanitary Commission Appoints a Commission of In
quiry — Range of the Investigation — Visit of the Commissioners to
Annapolis and Baltimore — Appearance of the Returned Prisoners —
Living Skeletons — Testimony Taken — The Claim of the Rebel
Government and People — The Humane Principles of Modern
Warfare.

EVER since the outbreak of the war, the country
has been full of painful rumors concerning the treat
ment of prisoners of war by the rebel authorities.
Every returned prisoner has brought his tale of suf
fering, astonishing his neighborhood with an account
of cruelty and barbarity on the part of the enemy.
Innumerable narratives have also been published and
widely circulated.

The public have been made very uneasy by these
reports. One class have accepted them as true;
another have felt them to be exaggerated; still another
have pronounced them wholly false, fictions purposely

made and scattered abroad to inflame the people

(19)

20 REPORTS OF REBEL CRUELTY.

against their enemies, and doing great injustice to the
South. .

On the other hand, rumors have crossed the border,
of an outraged public sentiment in the South, pre
cisely on the same account : reports abounding there
of cruelty and barbarity to the rebel soldiers in our
hands. It has been repeatedly announced that what
ever restrictions or privations have been suffered by
Northern men in Southern prisons, were in retaliation
for these.

In the beginning of such a prodigious contest, as
this has proved to be, breaking out in the midst of a
people unaccustomed to war, and quite removed from
extensive military traditions and examples, it was
natural that many irregularities should have occurred,
and many usages of warfare been disregarded on both
sides ; and that in the matter of prisoners especially,
where either region was suddenly inundated by many
thousands, great abuses should have taken place, until
accommodations could be provided and arrangements
perfected.

But these early days of ill-preparation have long
passed away. The war has lasted more than three
years. Both sections have become accustomed to it,
and are familiarized with the ideas, habits and laws
of military life. The passionate fury of one side and
the patriotic indignation of the other, have had time
to settle down, at least so far as to accept this condi
tion, and make every civilized provision known in

WRETCHED CONDITION OF THE RETURNED CAPTIVES. 21

modern warfare, for the mitigation of its horrors and
inhumanity.

And yet the painful rumors, so rife at the outbreak
of the war, instead of subsiding with its early tumult,
have lately increased to an extent which has seriously
alarmed and aroused the public. The tales of cruelty
and suffering have become even more heart-rend
ing. Months ago we heard reports that our men
were starving and freezing in the Southern prisons.
In the late temporary resumption of the cartel, boat
loads of half-naked living skeletons, foul with filth,
and covered with vermin, were said to have been
landed at Annapolis and Baltimore. Men, diseased
and dying, or physically ruined for life, unfit for fur
ther military service, had been received in the stead of
soldiers of the enemy returned in good condition, and
who had been well fed, well clothed, and well shel
tered by our government during their captivity.

But many reasons were circulated to account for
such a difference. It was alleged that these emaciated
men were the victims of camp dysentery, or similar
distempers, and of food, which, however good in
quality and sufficient in quantity, was averse to the
Northern constitution. Again it was alleged that the
rebel army was, itself, suffering for want of food and
clothing, and that the very guards to these prisoners
had fared no better.

There were many among us who were wjjling
to credit any statement which would mitigate or

22 APPOINTMENT OF THE COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY.

excuse the infamy of permitting such a condition
of things. For the sake of humanity and the
American name, they hoped that the worst could
not be proved.

But there were others to whom the proof was
sufficient, and who were convinced that the whole
was a horrible and pre-determined scheme, contrived
for the purpose of depleting our armies, and dis
couraging our soldiers.

The attention of Congress was roused, and a com
mittee was appointed to investigate this, and other
alleged barbarities. Their report has just been pub
lished.

Before, however, the result of their inquiries was
known, the United States Sanitary Commission, as the
organ of popular humanity and philanthropy, deter
mined to make an independent investigation, and such
a one as would, if possible, put the question at rest on
all points upon which the public mind was divided or
unsettled, and furnish information so full, and so direct
from original sources, that every one could arrive at a
just conclusion.

They accordingly appointed the undersigned as a
Commission of Inquiry, partly because they were
known to be removed from any political affiliations
and prejudices, and partly because three of their num
ber were supposed to be professionally competent to
read the unerring testimony of nature in the physical
condition of the men.

MANNER OF THE INVESTIGATION. 23

t

Two distinct departments of evidence were thus
opened.

In entering upon their duties the Commissioners
had no other wish than to ascertain the truth, and
to report the facts as they were. For this they
endeavored to collect all the evidence within their
reach, and to hear and record all that could be said
on every side of the subject. They were accompanied
by a United States Commissioner, and in every case
the testimony was taken on oath or affirmation before
him, or, in his absence, before other officers equally
empowered.

The mass, of evidence, printed as an Appendix,
was collected during a period of several months, and
is now arranged and classified to facilitate the reader's
reference. If it had been printed in the order in
which it was taken, it would have been too irregular
and apparently heterogeneous to have exhibited the
total result of the investigation. But, as it now
stands, it will be found united and homogeneous
enough in the tragical story which it tells, without
variation or self-contradiction, to the country and to
the world.

Much of the evidence, however, is made up of
bare abstracts of the free and full conversations that
were held with the persons examined, and although
all the essential facts are preserved, yet many graphic
and pathetic minor details are omitted which escaped,
or could not enter, the formal record, but sometimes

24 VISIT TO ANNAPOLIS AND BALTIMORE.

were noted down by those who were present.
Besides this, the Commissioners were witnesses them
selves, and saw and heard enough to overwhelm them
with astonishment, and remove the last doubt from
their minds.

For this reason, and that the reader may share
with them, so far as can be, the almost dramatic
development of the inquiry, they send out these
pages, not in the form of a brief documentary report,
simply referring to the testimony, but as a descrip
tive narrative, in which all the salient points of the
evidence, and the results of their own observation, are
incorporated together. Such a narrative need be only
an intelligible grouping of material — its facts will
speak best for themselves.

The Commissioners, at the very outset, were
brought face to face with the returned captives.

They first visited the two extensive hospitals in An
napolis, occupying the spacious buildings and grounds
of the Naval Academy and St. John's College, where
over three thousand of them had been brought in
every conceivable form of suffering, direct from the
Libby Prison, Belle Isle, and two or three other

Southern military stations.*

. ,

* The Commissioners would acknowledge the courtesy and hospi
tality of the accomplished and efficient Surgeon in charge of the Hospital
at the Naval Academy, Dr. VanderKieft, by whom every facility for
conducting the inquiry w is heartily given.

LIVING SKELETONS. 25

They also visited the West's Buildings Hospital
and the Jarvis General Hospital in Baltimore, where
several hundreds had been brought, in an equally
dreadful condition.

The photographs of these diseased and emaciated
men, since so widely circulated, painful as they are,
do not, in many respects, adequately represent the
sufferers as they then appeared.

The best picture cannot convey the reality, nor
create that startling and sickening sensation which is
felt at the sight of a human skeleton, with the skin
drawn tightly over its skull, and ribs, and limbs, weakly
turning and moving itself, as if still a living man !

And this was the reality.

The same spectacle was often repeated as the
visitors went from bed to bed, from ward to ward,
and from tent to tent. The bony faces stared
out above the counterpanes, watching the passer
by dreamily and indifferently. Here and there lajr
one, half over upon his face, with his bed clothing
only partially dragged over him, deep in sleep or
stupor. It was strange to find a Hercules in bones;

to see the immense hands and feet of a young giant

•

pendant from limbs thinner than a child's, and that
could be spanned with the thumb and finger!
Equally strange and horrible was it to come Upon a
man, in one part shrivelled to nothing but skin and
bone, and in another swollen and misshapen with;
dropsy or scurvy; or further on, when the surgeon

26 EVIDENCES OF MENTAL SUFFERING.

lifted the covering from a poor half unconscious
creature, to see the stomach fallen in, deep as a basin,
and the bone protruding through a blood red hole on
the hip.

Of course these were the worst cases among those
that still survived. Hundreds like them, and worse
even than they, had been already laid in their graves.

The remainder were in every gradation of physical
condition. Some were able to sit up, and to move
feebly around their bed; others were well enough to
be out of doors ; many were met walking about the
beautiful grounds of the Naval Academy — by a
curious and probably accidental compensation, on the
part of the Government, swung to this Paradise on
the Severn from the sandy little island in James
River and its bleak and bitter winds.

But however unlike and various the cases were,
there was one singular element shared by all, and
which seemed to refer them to one thing as the com
mon cause and origin of their suffering. It was
the peculiar look in every face. The man in Balti
more looked like the man just left in Annapolis.
Perhaps it was partly, the shaven head, the sunken
eyes, the drawn mouth, the pinched and pallid fea
tures — partly, doubtless, the grayish, blighted skin,
rougll to the touch as the skin of a shark. But there
was something else: an expression in the eyes and
countenance of utter desolateness, a look of settled
melancholy, as if they had passed through a period of

THE HIGH CLAIM OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. 27

physical and mental agony which had driven the smile
from their faces forever. All had it: the man that
was met on the grounds, and the man that could not
yet raise his head from the pillow.

It was this which arrested the attention of some of
the party quite as much as the remarkable phenomenon
of so many emaciated and singularly diseased men
being gathered together, all, with few exceptions,
having been brought from the same prisons in the
South.

Every one who was questioned contributed his part
to swell the following account of privation, exposure
and suffering.

The vail is now to be lifted from two of the nearest
and most noted Southern stations for prisoners. There'
appear, indeed, occasional glimpses of places of cap
tivity in Danville, Virginia, and Andersonville,
Georgia, but the chief interest centres upon Libby
and Belle Isle, at Richmond.

Before, however, the narrative proceeds, two things
must be borne in mind :

First, that we are now penetrating into the arrange
ments of a people who claim, and have so far main
tained, their entire independence of the United States
Government; who have organized a government of
their own ; who have also organized immense and
powerful armies ; who had, in the beginning, so far
prepared themselves, and, during the last three years,

28 MODERN TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR.

have so far completed their preparations, as to be able
to match, and all but overpower one of the strongest
military establishments ever known.

Let them, for the moment, be taken for what they
claim to be : " The Confederate States of America,"
a mighty government, and a " superior race," first in
civilization, in culture, and in courage, distinguished
for all that is magnanimous, chivalric, humane, hos
pitable, and noble, for all the graces and refinements,
and highest developments of individual and social life.

Furthermore, another thing must be borne in mind,
that, in these days of civilized warfare, the cowardly
and barbarous usage no longer prevails of maltreating
prisoners of war, but the moment a conflict is over,
every sentiment of Christianity and humanity rises to
mitigate the bloody horrors of the field. The distinc
tion of friend and enemy is no longer known.

The surgeon, with the high sense of professional
duty in which he has been educated, goes equally to all.
The prisoners taken are not thrown into dungeons, nor
shut up in jails, but put into barracks. They are
made as comfortable as the arrangements necessary for
their safe keeping will permit. They are sheltered,
warmed, fed and clothed, in all necessary respects as
well as the soldiers that vanquished and captured
them. They become, for the time being, part of the
military family of their enemy, and are made subject to
the same sanitary and other regulations.

Their barracks are never overcrowded; sufficient

TKEATMENT OF THE SICK. 29

area is allowed for exercise and fresh air ; so much
bathing is permitted, and even insisted upon, for the
sake of cleanliness; their food is in every respect the
same as that consumed by the army within whose
lines they are; their clothing is all that they need.-
Such a thing as robbery of their private property is
unknown, or never tolerated if known.

When sickness overtakes the prisoner he is removed
to the hospital : taken from his bunk and placed upon
a bed, and then, whatever distinction existed before
vanishes entirely : every kindness and attention, every
remedy and delicacy that a sufferer needs, is freely and
generously given.

Such is the high principle, and noble usage, which
prevails in modern warfare. The perfection of its
arrangements is a matter of pride and honor among
soldiers, and the proper boast of every Christian gov
ernment

We now turn to the people and government at
present waging war with our Government, and who,
through a dead-lock in the cartel, hold tens of thou
sands of United States soldiers as prisoners of war.

II.

Almost invariable Robbery of Prisoners — Description of Libby Prison —
Overcrowded Rooms — Barely room to lie down — Ragged and ver
minous Blankets — Shooting at prisoners without warning — Instances
of Shooting in Libby — Same in Danville and Atlanta — Insufficient
and disgusting Rations — Slow Starvation — Withholding and thieving
of Boxes sent from the North— Sufferings of the Officers— The Cells
— Inhumanity to the Dead — The Mining of Libby.

THE first fact developed by the testimony of both
officers and privates, is that prisoners were almost
invariably robbed of everything valuable in their
possession, sometimes on the field, at the instant
of capture, sometimes by the prison authorities in a
"quasi official way," with the promise of return when
exchanged or paroled : but which promise was never
fulfilled.* This robbery amounted often to a stripping
of the person of even necessary clothing. Blankets
and overcoats were almost always taken, and some
times other articles; in which case damaged or
ragged ones were returned in their stead.

This preliminary over, the captives were taken to
prison.
f The Libby, which is best known, though also

* No instance of the promise being kept appears in the evidence, but
there have teen occasions reported, though very rare, where money
was returned, but even then in depreciated Confederate currency.

(30)

DESCRIPTION OF LIBBT PRISON. 31

used as a place of confinement for private soldiers,
is generally understood to be the officers' prison.

It is a row of brick buildings, three stories high,
situated on the canal, and overlooking the James
river, and was formerly a tobacco warehouse. The
partitions between the buildings have been pierced
with doorways on each story.

The rooms are one hundred feet long by forty
feet broad. In six of these rooms, twelve hundred
United States officers, of all grades, from the Briga
dier-General to the Second-Lieutenant, were confined
for many months ; and this was all the space that
was allowed them in which to cook, eat, wash, sleep,
and take exercise ! It seems incredible. Ten feet
by two were all that could be claimed by each man —
hardly enough to measure his length upon ; and
even this was further abridged by the room neces
sarily taken for cooking, washing and clothes-
drying.

At one time they were not allowed the use of
benches, chairs or stools, nor even to fold their blan
kets and sit upon them, but those who would rest
were obliged to huddle on their haunches, as one of
them expresses it, " like so many slaves on the middle
passage." After awhile this severe restrictron was
removed, and they were allowed to make chairs and
stools for themselves, out of the barrels and boxes
which they had received from the North.

They were overrun with vermin in spite of every

32 THE BOOMS OVERCROWDED.

precaution and constant ablutions. Their blankets,
which averaged one to a man, and sometimes less,
had not been issued by the rebels, but had been pro
cured in different ways ; sometimes by purchase,
sometimes through the Sanitary Commission. The
prisoners had to help themselves from the refuse
accumulation of these articles, which, having seen
similar service before, were often ragged and full of
vermin.

In these they wrapped themselves at night, and
and lay down on the hard plank floor in close and
stifling contact, " wormed and dovetailed together,
as one of them testifies, "like fish in a basket."
The floors were recklessly washed late in the after
noon, and were therefore damp and dangerous to sleep
upon. Almost every one had a cough in consequence.

There were seventy-five windows in these rooms,
all more or less broken, and in winter the cold was
intense. Two stoves in a room, with two or three
armfuls of wood to each, did not prove sufficient under
this exposure, to keep them warm.

The regulations varied at different periods in
stringency and severity, and it is difficult to describe
the precise condition of things at any one time, but
the above comes from two officers, Lieutenant-Colonel
Farnsworth and Captain Calhoun. As it happens
they are representatives of the two opposite classes of
officers confined in the Libby. The former coming
from Connecticut, and influentially connected at the

GUAKDS ALLOWED TO SHOOT THE PKISONERS. 33

North, was one of a mess to which a great profusion
of supplies, and even luxuries, were sent. The latter
coming from Kentucky, and being differently situated,
was entirely dependent upon the prison fare.

These officers were there during the same season,
but never became acquainted. The accounts of each,
which will be found in the evidence side by side, are
here combined and run together.

From their statements it appears that the hideous
discomfort was never lessened by any variation in the
rules, but often increased. The prison did not seem
to be under ^ny general and uniform army regula
tions, but the captives were subject to the caprices of
Major Turner, the officer in charge, and Richard
Turner, inspector of the prison.

It was among the rules that no one should go with
in three feet of the windows, a rule which seems to
be general in all Southern prisons of this character
and which their frequently crowded state rendered
peculiarly severe and difficult to observe. The man
ner in which the regulation was enforced was unjusti
fiably and wantonly cruel. Often by accident, or
unconsciously, an officer would go near a window,
and be instantly shot at without warning. The
reports of the sentry's musket were heard almost
every day, and frequently a prisoner fell either killed
or wounded.

It was even worse with a large prison near by,

called the Pemberton Buildings, which was crowded

3

34 INSTANCES OF SHOOTING.

with enlisted men. The firing into its windows was a
still more common occurrence. The officers had heard
as many as fourteen shots fired on a single day. They
could see the guards watching for an opportunity to
fire, and often, after one of them had discharged his
musket, the sergeant of the guard would appear a*t
the door, bringing out a dead or wounded soldier.

So careless as this were the authorities as to the
effect of placing their prisoners in the 'power of the
rude and brutal soldiery on guard. It became a
matter of sport among the latter " to shoot a Yankee."
They were seen in attitudes of expfctation, with
guns cocked, watching the windows for a shot. But
sometimes they did not even wait for an infraction
of the rule. Lieutenant Hammond was shot at while
in a small boarded enclosure, where there was no
window, only an aperture between the boards. The
guard caught sight of his hat through this opening,
and aiming lower, so as to reach his heart, fired. A
nail turned the bullet upward, and it passed through
his ear and hat-brim. The officers reported the out
rage to Major Turner, who merely replied, "The
boys are in want of practice." The sentry said, " He
had made a bet that he would kill a damned Yankee
before he came off guard." No notice was taken of
the occurrence by the authorities.

The brutal fellow, encouraged by this impunity,
tried to murder another officer in the same way.
Lieutenant Huggins was standing eight feet from the

MURDER OF A PRISONER AT DANVILLE. 35

window, in the second story. The top of his hat was
visible to the guard, who left his beat, went out into
the street, took deliberate aim, and fired. Provi
dentially he was seen, a warning cry was uttered,
Huggins stooped, and the bullet buried itself in the
beams above.

Very much the same thing is mentioned as
happening in the prison buildings at Danville. A
man was standing by the window conversing with
private Wilcox. At his feet was the place where he
slept at night, close under the window, and where
his blanket lay rolled up. He had his hand on the
casement. The guard must have seen his shadow,
for he was invisible from the regular beat, and went
out twenty feet to get a shot at him. Before the poor
fellow could be warned, the bullet entered his fore
head, and he fell dead at the feet of his companion.

Almost every prisoner had such an incident to
tell. Some had been shot at themselves a number
of times, and had seen others repeatedly fired upon.
One testifies that he had seen five hundred men
shot at.

The same brutal style of "sporting" while on
guard, seems to have prevailed wherever the license
was given by this cruel and unnecessary rule. Cap
tain Calhoun, mentions that while he and his com
panions were on their way to Richmond from North
eastern Georgia, where they were captured, they
stopped at Atlanta, and just before they started, a

36 FAMINE IN LIBBY.

%

sick soldier who was near the line, beyond which
the prisoners were not allowed to go, put his hand
over to pluck a bunch of leaves that were not a foot
from the boundary. The instant he did so, the
guard caught sight of him, fired, and killed him.

Another instance of equal skill in " shooting on the
wing," will be noticed in the case of the soldier who
only exposed his arm an instant in throwing out
some water, and was wounded, fortunately not killed,
by the rebel bullet. Something of the same kind was
related in the course of conversation, but is not in the
evidence, as happening at the Libby, when an officer
was shot while waving his hand in farewell to a
departing comrade.

But there were cruelties worse than these, because
less the result of impulse and recklessness, and because
deliberately done. There opens now a part of the
narrative which is as amazing as it is unaccountable.

The reader will turn to the heart-rending scenes of
famine which the testimony before the Commission
has exposed.

The daily ration in the officers' quarter, of Libby
prison, was a small loaf of bread about the size of a
man's fist, made of Indian meal. Sometimes it was
made from wheat flour, but of variable quality. It
weighed a little over half a pound. With it was
given a piece of beef weighing two ounces.

But it is not easy to describe this ration, it was
so irregular in kind, quality and amount. Its

BAD QUALITY OF THE FOOD. 37

I

general character is vividly indicated by a remark
made in conversation, by one of the officers: "I
would gladly" said he, with emphatic sincerity, "gladly
have preferred the horse-feed in my father's stable."
During the summer and the early part of the fall,
the ration seems to have been less insufficient, and
less repulsive than it afterwards became. At no
period was it enough to support life, at least in
health, for a length of time, but however inadequate,
it was not so to such a remarkable degree as to
produce the evils which afterward ensued.

It was about the middle of last autumn that this pro
cess of slow starvation became intolerable, injurious,
and cruel to the extent referred to. The corn bread
began to be of the roughest and coarsest descrip
tion. Portions of the cob and husk were often found
ground in with the meal. The crust was so thick
and hard that the prisoners called it iron-clad. To
render the bread eatable, they grated it, and made
mush out of it, but the crust they could not grate.

Now and then, after long intervals, often of many
weeks, a little meat was given them, perhaps two
or three mouthfuls. At a later period, they received
a pint of black peas, with some vinegar, every week.
The peas were often full of worms, or maggots in a
chrysalis state, which, when they made soup, floated
on the surface.

Those who were entirely dependent on the prison
fare, and who had no friends at the North to send

38 DKEAMS AND DELUSIONS OF FAMINE.

y-

them boxes of food, began to suffer the horrible
agony of craving food, and feeling themselves day by
day losing strength. Dreams and delusions began to
distract their minds.*

Although many were relieved through the gene
rosity of their more favored fellow prisoners, yet the
supply from this source was, of course, inadequate.
Captain Calhoun speaks of suffering "a burning
sensation on the inside, with a general failing in
strength." "I grew so foolish in my mind that I
used to blame myself for not eating more when
at home." " The subject of food engrossed my
entire thoughts." " Captain Stevens having received

a box from home, sat down and ate to excess, and

.

* The very same phenomenon occurred during the celebrated Darien
Exploring Expedition, under Lieutenant Strain, some years ago. The
whole party suffered starvation; a number of them died, and the
remainder were rescued when they had become emaciated and debili
tated nearly to the point of death.

".From the time that food became scarce to the close, and just in
proportion as famine increased, they revelled in gorgeous dinners.
Truxton and Maury would pass hours in spreading tables loaded with
every luxury. Over this imaginary feast they would gloat with the
pleasure of a gourmand."— Darien Explor. Exped., Harp. Monthly,
vol. x., p. 613.

The party separated, Strain and Avery being the least exhausted and
going on before the others to obtain succor if possible.

"At length starvation produced the same singular effect on them
that it did on Truxton and Maury, and they would spend hours in
describing all the good dinners they had ever eaten. For the last two
or three days, when most reduced, Strain said that he occupied almost
the whole time in arranging a magnificent dinner. Every luxury or
curious dish that he had ever seen or heard of composed it, and he
wore away the hours in going round his imaginary table, arranging
and changing the several dishes. He could not force his rnind from the
contemplation of this, so wholly had one idea — food — taken possession
of it."— Darien Explor. Exped., Harp. Monthly, vol. x., p. 7tO,

SUPPLIES SENT FEOM THE NORTH WITHHELD. 39

died a few hours afterwards." " A man had a piece
of ham which I looked at for hours, and would have
stolen if I had had a chance."

One day, by pulling up a plank in the floor, they
gained access to the cellar, and found there an abund
ance of provisions : barrels of the finest wheat flour,
potatoes and turnips. Of these they ate ravenously
until the theft was discovered.

But the most unaccountable and shameful act of all
was yet to come. Shortly after this general diminu
tion of rations, in the month of January last, the
boxes, which before had been regularly delivered, and
in good order, were withheld. No reason was given.
Three hundred arrived every week, and were received
by Colonel Ould, Commissioner of Exchange, but
instead of being distributed, were retained, and piled
up in warehouses near by, and in full sight of the
tantalized and hungry captives. Three thousand
were there when Lieutenant-Colonel Farnsworth
came away.

There was some show of delivery, however, but, in
a manner especially heartless. Five or six of the boxes
were given during the week. The eager prisoner, ex
pectant perhaps of a wife's or mother's thoughtful
provision for him, was called to the door and ordered
to spread his blanket, when the open cans, whether
containing preserved fruits, condensed milk, tobacco,
vegetables, or meats were thrown promiscuously to
gether, and often ruined by the mingling.

40 THIEVING OF THE BOXES.

These boxes sometimes contained clothing, as well
as food, and their contents were frequently appro
priated by the prison officials. Lieutenant McGinnis
recognized his own home-suit of citizens clothes on
one of them, pointing out his name on the watch-
pocket.

The officers were permitted to send out and buy arti
cles at extravagant prices, and would find the clothes,
stationery, hams and butter which they had purchased
bearing the marks of the Sanitary Commission.

In one instance this constant thievery became an
unexpected advantage to the inmates. After the
famous " tunnelling out," by which so many effected
their escape, the guards confessed that they had seen
the fugitives, but supposed that they were their own
men stealing the boxes ! The tunnel, after running
under the street, had its outlet near where the boxes
were piled up.

All through the winter and late into the spring was
this suffering, chiefly from hunger, prolonged. There
is evidence of its continuance even so late as the month
of May last.

Surgeon Ferguson, who was confined there at that
time gives a most painful picture of what he saw.

" No one can appreciate, without experience, the
condition of the officers in the prison during the twelve
days of my stay ; their faces were pinched with hun
ger. I have seen an officer, standing by the window,
gnawing a bone like a dog. I asked him, ' What do

CRUEL PUNISHMENTS. 41

you do it forV His reply was, 'It will help fill
up.'

"They were constantly complaining of hunger;
there was a sad, and insatiable expression of face im
possible to describe."

There is no suffering that can be mentioned greater
than that of the slow and lingering pains of famine,
except it be perhaps the agonies of absolute death from
hunger — but of this no Libby evidence was collected.
The description of Libby life might therefore end at
this point so far as having reached the climax of all
possible misery on the one hand, and of all possible
barbarity on the other. But the testimony developes
still other instances of cruelty, which may as well be
introduced here, in order to show the animus of the
Confederate authorities.

It is stated that for offences, whether trivial or
serious, the prisoners were" consigned to cells, beneath
the prison, the walls of which were damp, green and
slimy. These apartments were never warmed, and
often so crowded that some were obliged to stand up
all night. It was in these dungeons that the hostages
were placed.

But the inhumanity was not confined to the living.
It extended even to the disposal of the dead. The
bodies were placed in the cellar, to which the animals
of the street had access, and very often were partly
devoured by hogs, dogs and rats. The officers had
the curiosity to mark the coffins in which they were

42 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD.

carried off, to find out whether they were buried in
them. But they proved to be only vehicles for bear
ing them away, returning a score of times for others.

This must have been the case with privates only,
who occupied part of the prison, as it is mentioned
that the officers generally secured by contributions,
made up among themselves, metallic coffins and a
decent temporary deposit in a vault for those of their
number who died, until they could be removed to
the North.

One other incident may be noticed which is quite
in keeping with all the rest, but without the foregoing
catalogue of outrages to humanity, would appear too
shocking to be credible.

At the time Kilpatrick made his nearly successful
raid on Richmond, the city was thrown into a panic
by his approach, and the prison officials deliberately
prepared — so the story runs — a more expeditious way
of closing the career of their prisoners. It was some
what more merciful than starvation, because it substi
tuted instantaneous death for an endless agony of
dying. The negroes gave the first intimation to the
captives of what was going on.* Richard Turner took
care to dash the hopes of his captives, as well as add
to their anxiety by informing them that " Should Kil
patrick succeed in entering Richmond, it would not
help them, as the prison authorities would blow up

* " Dug big hole down dar, massa. Torpedo in dar, sure /"

THE MIXING OF LIBBY. 43

the prison, and all its inmates." Lieutenant Latouche
was overheard observing to a rebel officer with whom
he had entered the cellar, where the two hundred
pounds of powder were said to be placed, " There is
enough there to send every damned Yankee to hell.'
Turner himself said, in the presence of Colonel Farns-
worth, in answer to the question, " Was the prison
mined V9 " Yes, and I would have blown you all to
Hades before I would have suffered you to be rescued."
The remark of Bishop Johns is corroborative as well
as curious, in reply to the question, " Whether it was
a Christian mode of warfare to blow up defenceless
prisoners T " I suppose the authorities are satisfied
on that point, though I do not mean to justify it."

The idea is so monstrously shocking that the mind
hesitates to grasp it, or believe it. Many will try to
see in it only a menace to deter any further attempt
to take Richmond by a raid. And yet the evidence,
even if it does come by rebel admissions, has an air
of diabolical sincerity. A remark of Turner's jus
tifying the act, which was mentioned to one of
the commissioners, but accidentally omitted in the
formal testimony, gives quite a decided turn to
the very natural probability that the fiendish plan
was resolved upon : " Suppose Kilpatrick should
have got in here, what would my life have been
worth after you all got loose. Yes, I would have
blown you all to Hades before I would have suffered
you to be rescued." This was his argument and self-

4:4: THE MINING OF LIBBY.

justification in brief, though somewhat more at length
at the time.

The act was altogether consistent with the charac
ters of the three men who had authority over the
prison: — General "Winder, the Commander of the
Department, Major Turner, Commander of the Prison,
whose brutality is fully illustrated by his management
of it, and Richard Turner, Inspector of the Prison, by
occupation a negro-whipper, (see the testimony 01
Colonel Farnsworth,) and whose savage nature vented
itself in frequent acts of personal insult and physical
violence toward the prisoners.

Be the story true or false, it is at any rate, consum
mately befitting and consistent, inasmuch as the
strongest reasons for its probability may be derived
from the other facts that have now been narrated.
If true, it is strongly corroborative of the vindictive
purpose which animates the Confederate authorities.
History may yet write it so, and therefore the Com
missioners do not pass it over in silence because of
any doubt that may cling to it.

Let the spectacle that, probably, came so near
taking place, be, at least the appropriate crown and
close of this portion of the narrative; the Union
raiders, bounding over the fortifications of Richmond,
intent upon rescuing their companions from a cap
tivity worse than death, — and the three great brick
buildings lifted bodily into the air, and let down in
one stupendous crush and ruin upon the living forms
of twelve hundred helpless men !

III.

Description of Belle Isle — No shelter provided from the heat in Summer,
or from the cold in Winter — Sufferings during the late severe Winter
— Expedients to avoid Freezing to Death — Men Frozen to death — The
Loathsome and inadequate Food — Men perishing from Hunger —
Unavoidable Filth of the Camp and of the Men 011 account of the
Rules — Neglect of the Sick — Cruelty to the Sick — Incidents of cru
elty in Hospitals.

BUT there is a still lower depth of suffering to be
exposed. The rank of the officers, however disre
garded in most respects, induced some consideration,
but for the private soldiers there seemed to be no
regard whatever, and no sentiment which could
restrain.

It is to this most melancholy part of their task that
the Commissioners now proceed.

Belle Isle is a small island in the James river,
opposite the Tredegar Iron-works, and in full sight
from the Libby windows. It has pretensions enough
to beauty at a distant view to justify its name, as part
of it is a bluff covered with trees. But the portion
on which the prisoners are confined, is low, sandy,
and barren, without a tree to cast a shadow, and
poured upon by the burning rays of a Southern sun.

Here is an enclosure, variously estimated to be

(45)

46 THE PRISONERS CKOWDED AND SHELTERLESS.

from three to six acres in extent, surrounded by an
earthwork about three feet high, with a ditch on
either side. On the edge of the outer ditch, all round
the enclosure, guards are stationed about forty feet
apart, and keep watch there day and night. The
interior has something of the look of an encampment,
a number of Sibley tents being set in rows, with
" streets " between. These tents, rotten, torn, full of
holes, — poor shelter at any rate, — accommodated only
a small proportion of the number who were confined
within these low earth walls.

The number varied at different periods, but from ten
to twelve thousand men have been imprisoned in this
small space at one time, turned into the enclosure
like so many cattle, to find what resting place they
could. So crowded were they, that at the least,
according to the estimated area given them, there
could have been but a space two feet by seven, and,
at the most, three feet by nine, per man — hardly a
generous allotment even for a " hospitable grave."

Some were so fortunate as to find shelter in the
tents, but even they were often wet with the rain,
and almost frozen when winter set in. Every day
some places were made vacant by disease or by death,
as some were taken to the hospital, and some to
burial.

But thousands had no tents, and no shelter of any
kind. Nothing was provided for their accommo
dation. Lumber was plenty in a country of forests,

EXPOSED TO HEAT AND COLD. 47

but not a cabin or shed was built, although the
commonest material would have been a grateful boon
to the captives, and would have been quickly and
ingeniously employed by them.

This is an established station for prisoners of war,
and yet not a movement has been made, from its
beginning to this moment, to erect barracks, or make
any suitable and humane provisions for the comfort
of those confined there. It remains to this day an
open encampment, close under the walls of Richmond,
and well known to the Confederate authorities, with
nothing but the heavens for its canopy.

Here then these thousands lay all last summer,
fall, and winter, with nought but the sand for
their bed, and the sky for their covering. What
did they do in the summer and early autumn with
the sickening heat of a torrid sun pouring upon their
unprotected heads'? What did they do when the
rain descended and the floods came ? What did they
suiter when the malarious fog enveloped them, or
when the sharp winds swept up the river, and pierced
their almost naked and shivering forms ?

Stripped of blankets and overcoats, hatless often,
shoeless often, in ragged coats and rotting shirts they
were obliged to take the weather as it came. Here
and there a tent had a fire, and the inmates gathered
round it, but the thousands outside shivered as the
cold cut them to the bone, and huddled together for
warmth and sympathy.

48 FEOZEN" AND STARVED TO DEATH.

The winter came — and one of the hardest winters
ever experienced in the South — but still no better
shelter was provided. The mercury was down to
zero at Memphis, which is further south than Rich
mond. The snow lay deep on the ground around
Richmond. The ice formed in the James, and flowed
in masses upon the rapids, on either side of the island.
Water, left in buckets on the island, froze two or three
inches deep in a single night.

The men resorted to every expedient to keep from
perishing. They lay in the ditch, as the most pro
tected place, heaped upon one another, and lying close
together, as one of them expressed it, "like hogs in
winter," taking turns as to who should have the out
side of the row. In the morning the row of the
previous night was marked by the motionless forms of
those "who were sleeping on in their last sleep"' —
frozen to death !

Every day, during the winter season, numbers were
conveyed away stiff and stark, having fallen asleep in
everlasting cold. Some of the men dug holes in the
sand in which to take refuge. All through the night
crowds of them were heard running up and down to
keep themselves from freezing. And this fate threat
ened them, even more than it would have threatened
most men. exposed to an equally severe temperature,
even with such thin clothing and inadequate shelter
-—for they were starving !

The very sustenance of animal heat was withheld,

THE PKISONERS RAVENOUS FOE FOOD. 49

and one of the most urgent occasions of hunger, a
freezing temperature, which makes the bodily neces
sity stronger, and the appetite for food greater, was
given full opportunity to make havoc among them.
So the last stay and power of resistance was taken
away — the cold froze them because they were hungry,
— the hunger consumed them because they were cold.
These two vultures fed upon their vitals, and no one
in the Southern Confederacy had the mercy or the
pity to drive them away. Only once was there heard
a voice of indignant remonstrance in the rebel Con
gress from a noble-hearted statesman, but it was heard
with indifference, and brought about no alleviation.

Read the rude words of these suffering men. Put
together their testimony, and what a harrowing tale it
tells !

They were fed as the swine are fed. A chunk of
corn-bread, twelve or fourteen ounces in weight, half-
baked, full of cracks as if baked in the sun, musty in
taste, containing whole grains of corn, fragments of
cob. and pieces of husks ; meat often tainted, suspi
ciously like mule-meat, and a mere mouthful at that ;
two or three spoonfuls of rotten beans ; soup thin
and briny, often with the worms floating on the sur
face. None of these were given together, and the
whole ration was never one-half the quantity necessary
for the support of a healthy man.

The reader will not be surprised to hear that the
men were ravenous when the rations were brought in,

50 TOUCHING EXPKESSIOXS OF THE SUFFERERS.

nor remain unmoved by the simple and touching
expressions which fell from so many of them : —

"There was no name for our hunger." .

"I was hungry — pretty nearly starved to death all
the time."

" I waked up one night, and found myself gnawing
my coat sleeve."

vt I used to dream of having something good to eat."

" I walked the streets for many a night — I could
not sleep for hunger."

" I lost flesh and strength, and so did the others,
for want of food."

" If I were to sit here a week, I could not tell you
half our suffering "

There were other indications of the desperate
famine to which they were subjected. They gnawed
the very bones which had been thrown away, some
times breaking them up for soup. They were glad to
get the refuse bread which was occasionally thrown to
them by the guards. They even ate the rats which
burrowed in the encampment. A dog, belonging to
an officer, straying into the enclosure was caught and
secreted, and before he could reclaim his property, it
was torn apart by the man who stole it, some of it
eaten by himself, and the remainder sold to his
comrades.

So reduced were they, that they exchanged their
clothing for food, and left themselves exposed the
more to the cold. Under the temptation to secure

DIET, VEEMIN, AND DISEASE. 51

double rations, many worked at their trades of black-
smithing and shoemaking for the rebel army,

But as the weary months drew on, hunger told its
inevitable tale on them all. They grew weak and
emaciated. Many found that they could not walk ;
when they attempted it a dizziness and blindness
came, and they fell to the ground. Diarrhoea, scurvy,
congestion of the lungs, and low fevers set in.

To add to their sufferings there came the unavoid
able consequences of being herded and crowded
together, but in this case especially aggravated by
a most unnecessary restriction. A broad beach sur
rounded the island, and yet only about seventy-five
men were permitted to bathe per day in the river, in
squads of five or six at a time. At this rate it was
literally and almost accurately what so many of the
men state : that they were allowed to wash themselves
only once in six months.

" Lice were in all their quarters." Vermin and dirt
encrusted their bodies. They were sore with lying
in the sand. None, not even the sufferers with diar
rhoea, were allowed to visit the sinks during the
night, and in the morning the ground was covered
and saturated with filth. The wells were tainted;
the air was filled with disgusting odors.*

Many were taken sick daily, but were allowed to
suffer for days before they were removed to the hospi-

* This taint of the drinking water was mentioned in conversation,
but was accidently omitted in the evidence.

52 INHUMANITY TO THE SICK.

tals, and when this was done, it was often so late that
the half of them died before reaching it, or died at
the very moment their names were being recorded.

There was a hospital tent on the island, which was
always full of the sick. It had no floor, the sick and
dying were laid on straw, and logs were their only
pillows. " If you or I saw a horse dying," said one,
"wouldn't we put some straw under his head]
Would we let him beat his head on a log in his
agony V9

When this tent was full, the sick were taken to a
hospital in Richmond.

The poor creatures were often as prematurely
returned, as they had been tardily removed thither.
Often were they seen escorted back, so weak as
hardly to be able to move, some even crawling on
their hands and knees. Colonel Ely, of the 18th
Connecticut saw one of his men, a former school
mate and townsman, George Ward, a much respected
citizen of Norwich, Connecticut, returning to the
island in this condition, with a squad of others. He
threw him a ham, but as the "poor fellow crawled to
get it," says Colonel Farns worth, who also witnessed
the sad condition of an old acquaintance, " the rebel
guard charged bayonets upon him, called him a
damned Yankee, and appropriated the ham."

An incident which happened in the very hospital
from which these men were brought, will give even a
better idea of how the sick were treated.

HORRIBLE CONDITION OF THE HOSPITAL. 53

Two officers made their escape. Immediately all
the patients who were able to sit up or stand were
taken into an empty room under the Libby, and kept
there twenty-four hours, without food or blankets, as
a punishment for not having reported the contem
plated escape. From this treatment Surgeon Pierce
died. The officers in the room above took up the
floor, supplied the sick with food and drink, and
shared their blankets with them. For this they were
deprived by Major Turner of rations for a whole day.

A still more vivid picture of a hospital interior is
given by Surgeon Ferguson. It is of the notorious
and horrible Hospital No. 21, where, so late as
in May last, Dr. Ferguson says, a the wounded Union
prisoners were under treatment, * * * I consider,"
he adds, " the nourishment and stimulation they re
ceived entirely insufficient to give them a proper
chance for recovery. I am surprised that more do not
die. There were many bad cases among them that
must inevitably sink under this treatment after a few
days. The condition of these men was such, that
any medical observer would impute it to insufficient
stimulation and nutrition.

" The bedding where the privates were confined by
wounds was very dirty; the covering was entirely, old,
dirty quilts; the beds were offensive from the dis
charges from wounds and secretions of the body, and
were entirely unfit to place a sick or wounded man on.

"On the faces of the wounded was an anxious,

54 HALF THE PATIENTS DIE IN THREE MONTHS.

haggard expression of countenance, such as I have
never seen before ; I attribute it to want of care, want
of nourishment and encouragement."

A Hospital Steward, while a prisoner, attending
to some duty in the hospital, found, by accident,
the Confederate Surgeon-General's quarterly report,
which he brought away with him when he was
paroled. By this, it appears that in the months of
January, February and March last, out of nearly
twenty-eight hundred patients, about fourteen hun
dred — or half the number — died! This document
will be found in the appendix.*

And what was here done in prison and hospital, to
our private soldiers on Belle Isle, and to our officers
in the Libby, was done nearly all over the South.
These facts are most conspicuous only because in the
foreground. But from almost every station in the
distant South, of which anything is known, comes
the same story of robbery and insult, of starvation
on food both bad and insufficient, of exposure — in
the day to heat, and in the night to the frost — of
shootings without warning, of close and filthy rooms
or unsheltered encampments, of disease without
care or medical treatment, and of deaths without
number.

Danville has yet the whole of its dreadful tale to
tell. Andersonville has yet to account for its average

* Page 192.

BARBARITIES AT ANDEESONVILLE. 55

of one liundred and thirty deaths a clay, at which rate
the whole of its present number — thirty- five thou
sand — will be dead in a few months.*

The very railroads can speak of inhuman transpor
tations from one point to another of the sick, the
wounded, and the un wounded together, crowded into
cattle and baggage cars, lying and dying in the filth
of sickness, and the blood of undressed wounds.

* At the very moment this inquiry is concluded and this report is
being prepared, a memorial is brought to the President of the United
States by commissioners appointed by the prisoners still in confinement
at Andersonville, representing their sufferings and appealing for succor.
A statement is also published, verified under oath by three of these
soldiers, who were exchanged August 16th. These documents are
so remarkably corroborative, in every particular, of the results de
veloped by the inquiry, and, in some respects, represent a state of
things so much worse than at the date at which the investigation closed,
that they have been appended in a supplement, which will be found, after
the evidence, on page 259. The frequent menacing predictions of the
rebel press, and the evident precipitation of cruel measures upon the
prisoners which is exhibited by the testimony taken before the Com
mission, find a fitting confirmation and counterpart, in this the latest
account which has come from a Southern prison.

IV.

The men as they appeared when brought on board the flag of truce boat,
and into the Hospitals — Distressing- spectacle — Hunger, nakedness,
filthiness — Disease and death from starvation and cold — Cries for
food — Imbecility and insanity of many — Opinions of the surgeons —
The Medical Report of the Commission.

The Commissioners do not feel at liberty, in pre
senting a narrative like this, every fact of which is
rooted in the appended testimony, to make any infer
ential statements, although there are some incidents
which are as essentially connected with such a state
of things, as certain known effects are with certain
established causes. A hundred scenes of suffering
could be imagined and depicted by one conversant
with the medical and other phenomena of famine and
exposure to cold, which would be recognized as part
of their own history by those who saw or experienced
the wretched life led by the prisoners on Belle Isle.

But, as it has happened, the reader is furnished
•with vivid descriptions, by eye-witnesses, of the men
as they appeared at the time of their transfer into the
hands of the United States Government, and they

have only to be imagined back on Belle Isle, or
(56)

DEPLOKABLE CONDITION OF THE MEN. 57

\vherever else they had been, to get all too painful a
conception of what was daily to be witnessed there.

" I have been," said Mr. Abbott, who, as special
agent of the Sanitary Commission, was among the
first to come in contact with the returned prisoners —
" I have been on the battle-field, and in the hospitals,
and witnessed much suffering, but never did I experi
ence so sad and deplorable a condition of human
beings as that of the paroled Union prisoners just
from Belle Island, and the rebel prisons of the
South."

It was his business, for a period, to accompany the
flag-of-truce boat as it plied between City Point, Vir
ginia, and Annapolis, Maryland, bringing home thou
sands of the wretched men. The greater proportion of
them were living skeletons, and each successive boat
load was in a worse condition than the last. Hundreds,
at each trip, were stretched on cots, sick with every form
of disease which could have been induced by confine
ment, exposure, and bad food. A number were dying ;
several died before the boat landed. Every one was
in a frightfully filthy condition. All were deficient in
clothing. Many were almost naked, and whatever
they had on was ragged and dirty. Their hair and
beards had grown long, having been uncut for many
months. Their bodies were encrusted with dirt, and
infested with vermin. One man had convulsions dur
ing a whole trip, caused, the surgeon said, by vermin.
The vermin were very thick upon his body, and he

58 IMBECILITY AND INSANITY FROM STARVATION.

threw his attenuated arms about, catching as at lice,
throwing them off, and slapping them with his blanket.

In this state the prisoners were landed, and were
received by the surgeons of Annapolis and Baltimore.

Many were so weak that they had to be carried
ashore on stretchers, and died in the brief transit.
Others tottered to the hospital, with the little strength
they had remaining, only to die in a few hours. Some
of them were found covered with bad and extensive
sores, caused by lying on the sand. Many had lost
their reason, and were in all stages of idiocy and im
becility.* One had become incurably insane in his
joy at being delivered.

Often they acted like children and had to be taught
again the decencies of life, so long had they been
unhabituated to them. A number had partially lost
their sight, hearing, and speech. One man was pointed
out to the commissioners who had been so covered
by vermin, that after having been, as was supposed,
thoroughly washed, his head even being shaven, was
laid upon a clean bed — in ten minutes the sheets and
his clothing were covered with vermin again. And
this was not peculiar to him. It was only an instance
of the unavoidable condition of all. In some cases
they were so eaten by lice as to very nearly resemble

* "Wilson was exceedingly debilitated, and had become perfectly
childish, and almost idiotic from suffering, and Strain feared that bad
effects might ensue if he was permitted to eat as much as he wished."
Darien Explor. Exped. Harper's Month, vol. x., p. 752.

THE RETURNED CAPTIVES BEGGING FOR FOOD. 59

a case of scabbing from small pox, being covered
with sores from head to foot.

Many had been badly frost-bitten, and came ashore
with feet partially amputated. In one case it was
mentioned to the visitors that a frozen foot fell off as
the man was being carried ashore!

Without exception they were ravenous for food.
Their cries for something to eat were pitiful to hear.
The surgeons had to restrain their voracity, and keep
them on small quantities of liquid food lest they should
kill themselves by over-eating, or by eating solid food.
They would often entreat for the sight of an apple or
a piece of meat, that they might enjoy at least the
vision of what they could not have.

It was their invariable reply in answer to the ques
tion "What was the matter?' "That they had been
starved, exposed, and neglected on Belle Isle."

The surgeons, themselves, were unanimous in their
opinion as to the cause of their condition, not only
from the uniform story of the men, but from the
characteristics of the different diseases, the revela
tions of the post-mortem examination, and especially,
and most conclusively of all, the invariable treatment
which proved most efficacious, namely: not medica
tion, but simple nutrition and stimulation.

They all agreed in attributing the condition of the
men to one or more of the following causes : Depriva
tion of clothing; insufficient food, in quantity and

60 OPINIONS OF THE SURGEONS.

quality ; want of fresh air on account of over-crowd
ing ; consequent and unavoidable uncleanliness ; want
of adequate shelter during the fall and winter ; and
mental depression the natural result of all.

The reader will be impressed by the emphatic utter
ances of the surgeons :

SURGEON VANDERKIEFT. — " Their condition is on
account of ill-treatment by starvation and exposure,
as I am convinced is the case by their actual condition
on their arrival, and by rations shown to me. That
the men must have been in good health when cap
tured, I do not need such a statement, as I am well
acquainted with the regulations which govern the
medical department of our army, 'to send to the rear
every man who is not perfectly able to bear arms.' * * *
"The diseases most common among these returned
prisoners are scurvy, diarrhoea, and congestion of the
lungs, which are not amenable to the ordinary treat
ment in use in civil life, or in hospitals of our own
army; they are most successfully mastered by high
nutrition and stimulation, with cleanliness and fresh
air — medicinal treatment being of small assistance iu
the recovery of the sufferers, and often being entirely
dispensed with, * * * thus proving by the counter
acting effect of good food, air, cleanliness, and stimu
lants, that these disorders are the result of the causes
above stated."

SURGEON ELY. — Speaking of the dead whom he
had found on the boats as they landed, " No words can

CONDITION CAUSED BY STARVATION AND EXPOSURE. 61

describe their appearance. In each case the sunken
eye, the gaping mouth, the filthy skin, the clothes and
head alive with vermin, the repelling bony contour,
all conspired to lead to the conclusion that we were
looking upon the victims of starvation, cruelty, and
exposure, to a degree unparalleled in the history of
humanity. Nearly every instance leads us irresistibly
to the conclusion that death has been owing to a long
series of exposures and hardships, with a deprivation
of the barest necessities of existence.

" In many cases that I have observed the dirt in
crustation has been so thick as to require months of

i

constant ablutions to recover the normal condition and
function of the integuments. Patients have repeatedly
stated in answer to my interrogatories that they had
been unable to wash their bodies once in six months,
that all that time they had lain in the dirt. * * * In
many instances this is the prime, exciting cause of the
diseases of the pulmonary and abdominal organs
which are so constantly found among our Richmond
patients."*

SURGEON PARKER. — " The majority of the diseased
cases were diarrhoea, caused by bad diet, of insuffi
cient and bad quality. They have resulted from the
want of variety of diet. I found nutrition was the
most successful treatment. I do not consider the

* See his evidence for a report at length of the results of the post
mortem examinations. Appendix p. 172.

62 EESULTS OF POST-MOBTEM EXAMINATIONS.

(rebel) rations, I have seen, sufficient for the support
of life for any long time."

SURGEON PETERS. — "The post-mortems have made
apparent diseases of nearly all the viscera to a remarka
ble extent.*): Under a spare but concentrated diet
many have rallied. In one instance a boy gained
fifty pounds in two weeks. I think nine-tenths of
the men weighed under one hundred pounds. They
had an uncontrollable appetite."

SURGEON CHAPEL. — "We were obliged to treat
them as children in regulating their diet, having to
restrain their over-eating, and confine them to a
concentrated, but nourishing and generous diet.
Several cases had no disease whatever, but suffered
from extreme emaciation and starvation *
All gave evidence of extensive visceral disease, of
which starvation, cold and neglect were undoubtedly
the primary cause. Some of the cases sank from
extreme debility, without any evidence of disease as
the cause of death."

The professional opinions of these gentlemen, and
the other incidental medical testimony scattered
through the appendix, will, without doubt, be received
with great weight by the reader. But, after all, the
evidence of the men themselves, rudely and abruptly
worded, and so often unconsciously graphic and

t See Dr. Carpenter on Starvation, where fifty-two per cent, of the
starved were thus affected.

THE MEDICAL KEPORT. 63

pathetic, will come more convincingly to the popular
heart.

It will be enough for most people that the captives
were hungry day a#d night, and suffered the gnaw
ing pains of famine, with its dreams and delusions.
It will be enough that they became weak and emacia
ted to the degree in which they were found when
exchanged. It will be enough that they were
poisoned by foul air and over-crowding ; and that they
were exposed in the depth of winter, to the cold,
without shelter and without covering. It will be
enough that thousands of them became hideously
diseased, and that most of them miserably perished.

People do not need any other information in the
face of such facts as these in order to come to a just
conclusion, and yet, there 4s a certainty and a satisfac
tion in scientific facts, and in the testimony of nature,
which ought to be recognized in an investigation like
this.

For this reason the commissioners made the inves
tigation also a scientific one, and append a medical
statement, prepared at their request by one of their
number, drawn likewise from the evidence, the facts
and arguments of which are fully endorsed by the
medical members of the commission.

V.

Reported Suffering of the Rebel Army, and Embarrassment of the
Rebel Government for want of Supplies, as an Excuse for Denying
Food and Clothing to United States Soldiers — The Impossibility
of there being any such Deficiency — The Physical Condition of the
Rebel Army perfect — Facts drawn from. Rebel testimony.

It has been said, and has been the general impres
sion, that the rebel government was itself embarrassed
for want of supplies — that its own soldiers were naked
and hungry, and that even the prison guards shared
the privations of the prisoners.

It will be noticed that this excuse, urged strenu
ously by their friends, and half accepted by every one
disposed to be moderate and just, after all, only accounts
for a small portion of the conduct of the rebels to
their captives.

Why were they robbed of their private pro
perty : the money, and the few trinkets a man
usually carries with him ] Or, if this was the uncon
trollable habit of a wild soldiery, why was it the regu
lar proceeding of the Libby authorities on the entrance

of an officer ? Why was it often done with brutal
(64)

UNNECESSARY ACTS OF CRUELTY. 65

violence, when the person undergoing the process
expostulated I

By whose connivance were the supplies of food
and clothing, sent from the North, stolen 1 By
whose neglect, or by whose order, were they with
held in immense quantities from men palpably starv
ing and freezing'?

How is it that — after three years of war, during
which everything military had grown colossal and
correspondingly complete, with them, as with us, —
that no extensive barracks, even of the cheapest
and frailest kind, offering, at least, space to move in,
and shelter from the weather, were not erected ;
but that open encampments, or city warehouses too
small for such occupation, continue in use to this
day'?

How is it that, even under such circumstances,
supposing them, for some reason, unable to have
done better, they made rules circumscribing the pris
oners still further, exposing them to the poison of
foul air, generated by unavoidable personal unclean-
liness, and by the equally unavoidable accumulations
of filth under certain conditions of disease, for which
either no provision was made, or if made, they were
capriciously prevented from using]*

* " Sometimes we were allowed to go to the privy, and sometimes
we were not. We have been kept from it so much as three days, until
we fouled the floor. Appendix, page 181.

* ' After we tunneled out, we were only allowed to go to the privy six

5

66 STILL OTHERS ENUMERATED.

Why, when over- crowding a building with cap
tives, did they make an imaginary boundary line,
two or three feet inside the windows, to be observed
under penalty of instant death *? How is it that the
guards were not only permitted, by this regulation,
to amuse themselves with taking the lives of the
prisoners, upon certain given opportunities, but were
negatively encouraged even to murder and assassina
tion, by the indifference of the prison authorities ?

And is there anything to account for the condition
of their hospitals for prisoners'? Even supposing
them to be ill-supplied with medicines, there were
common remedies, easily at hand, which were seldom
administered — or supposing them to be ill-furnished
with hospital comforts, even with sheets and bedding,
there W7as no necessity for placing the wounded, as well
as the sick, on beds too foul to approach, and afterward
made still more offensive by the permitted accumula
tions of the secretions and putrid discharges of the
patient.

Why, also, when their arrangements induced so much
sickness and disease, did they leave the men to suffer,
often for weeks, before they removed them, (and then
like sink animals,) from the encampment or the prison

at a time ; the floor was in one mess — filthy ; an ordinary one horse
wagon-ioad of human excrement on the floor every morning." Ap
pendix, page 147.

" Tbe enclosure on Belle Isle was a mass of filth every morning,
from the inability of the men to proceed to the sinks after evening/'
Appendix, page 140.

NO EXCUSE FOR SUCH THINGS POSSIBLE. 67

to the hospital, often to die on the way, or as soon as
they were put in the hands of a physician I Why did
they discharge them when so feeble that they reeled
back to the place of captivity, and even had to crawl
thither on their hands -and knees 1 Or why, as in one
instance, (and one, under such circumstances, may be
many,) did they subject them, even before they were
convalescent and discharged, to such a punishment as
confinement in a cell, exposure to cold, and deprivation
of food]

These grave developments of the testimony, by
no means new to many at the North, and occasionally
the subject of newspaper report, (though never in
such detail as now related,) have as yet elicited no
excuse or explanation ; and until an excuse or expla
nation comes, the government by whom such things
are authorized, and the people by whose public senti
ment such things are encouraged, will stand arraigned
for almost immeasurable inhumanity and criminality
before the civilized world.

But it is important that this matter of famine and
freezing, suffered by our men, should take more than
a negative place among the foregoing positive facts,
as half explained away, if it should appear that neither
were necessary or unavoidable.

These are the two worst developments of the
inquiry — the facts cannot be denied, for no evidence
was ever more closely knit in support of anything
and the question, therefore, lies open: Were the

68 FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS INTO REBEL RESOURCES.

people who were capable of these other unaccountable
and inexcusable acts, capable, also, of deliberately
withholding necessary food from their prisoners of war,
and furnishing them with what was indigestible and
loathsome, when their own army was abundantly sup
plied with good and wholesome food] Were they
capable, also, not only of depriving their prisoners of
their own clothing, but also of withholding the issue
of sufficient to keep them warm, when the soldiers of
their own army were well-equipped, and well-protected
from exposure to the wet and cold ]

But the inquiry cannot stop at this point. If they
were capable of this, then they were capable of be
holding, without compassion, their fellow beings sub
jected to the worst and most lingering agonies which
humanity can endure. Putting together the act, and
this insensibility to its consequences, what other
deduction can be drawn, than that all was a pre
determined plan, originating somewhere in the rebel
counsels, for destroying and disabling the soldiers of
their enemy, who had honorably surrendered in the
field]

And has it come to this] Has the oft- threatened
black flag, the signal of a foe that has no mercy and
gives no quarter, been floating all this time, not cour
ageously on the battle field, but over prisons and hospi
tals in the South, full of surrendered and helpless men ]

The commissioners, from the outset, considered this
department of their investigation to be fully as im-

RESOURCES OF THE REBEL GOVERNMENT. 69

portant as tlie other, and were at equal pains to leave
it no longer a matter of doubt whether or not the
rebel government was unable to provide their prisoners
with food and clothing, good and sufficient.
j One fact was evident on the face of things, that
no army could have endured such forced and violent
marches, the fatigues and exposures of such desperate
campaigning, and have kept up a spirit for such indom
itable fighting, unless they had been well-equipped,
and their physical condition had been maintained by
every means, medical and commissary, known in a
well regulated army.

The rebel authorities could not afford to swell their
army by conscription on the one hand, and to let the
material, thus obtained, escape its military use, by
famine and disease on the other. The same arbitrary
energy which could enforce the one, could provide
against the other.

Nor are the quotations of Confederate prices any
criterion by which to judge. The country is rich and
fertile, if the Confederate currency is inflated and
poor. Every agricultural resource of a soil and
\ climate, unsurpassed by any other in the world, has
been quickened to meet the emergency. The neces
sity has, also, in three years, developed other and
unknown fountains of supply — all at the command of
a strong, desperate, and despotic government, which
has not hesitated to employ every means to keep its
armies on the most perfect military footing.

70 KEBEL GUARDS WELL FED.

This reasoning is borne out by the facts developed
in the inquiry. The testimony will be found to be
quite a revelation of the rebel mode of sustaining an
army and a war. Their efficiency in this respect must
be admitted — an efficiency created partly by a greater
aptitude and inclination for the single art of war, than
for the many arts of peace ; and partly by the deadly
necessity they are under for the most strenuous pos
sible defence of their rebellion, on account of the ex
traordinary power developed by the Government of
the United States.

It appears, from the testimony, that the guards
of the prisoners (of whose privations so much has
been said) were better supplied with food than the
prisoners. The question was frequently asked, and
elicited the invariable reply, that they did not
share the same ration. Their supply was of a dif
ferent character, and was enough. Sometimes they
threw fragments of food to the hungry captives on
Belle Isle. It will be remembered, that at the time
the Libby prisoners were so insufficiently fed, a room
in the cellar was found stocked with provisions of
excellent quality.

But no testimony on this point can be so satisfac
tory as that derived from the rebel soldiers them
selves.

Several of the commissioners went directly from An
napolis to Washington for the express purpose of visit
ing and examining the rebel prisoners. They found a

TESTIMONY OF REBEL SOLDIERS. 71

large number at the Lincoln Hospital. Although these
prisoners were suffering from wounds received in the
late battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, they
were in a physical condition which alone was evidence
enough of the care that had been taken of them by
their own government. In every case they were
healthy, hardy, vigorous men. There was scarcely a
trace even of the terrible fatigue they had so recently
endured. Better than all, as an indication of their
condition, their wounds were healing as only the
wounds of men in perfect health can heal.

Nine, out of the whole number, were examined
under oath. The formal testimony stopped at this
number, as it was found by conversation, that all had
the same account to give, and it was needless to mul
tiply depositions. They came from six of the prin
cipal States of the Confederacy. . Two were from
Virginia, two from South Carolina, two from Georgia,
one from Mississippi, one from North Carolina, and
one from Alabama.

In order to make the inquiry more complete and
satisfactory, certain members of the Commission after
wards visited Fort Delaware, and the Hospital on
David's Island, New York, at both which stations
rebels were confined, and the testimony of eleven
more was procured. The men were from Virginia,
Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi.

The evidence of these three separate sets of wit
nesses, which has been placed together, was given with-

72 WELL FED, CLOTHED, WARMED AND SHELTERED.

out hesitation, and is uniform and reliable. Any
amount of such could have been procured, but that
which has been taken will be found full enough.

The result of the whole amounts to this : In the
words of one of them — " They had nothing to com
plain of in the way of food and clothing." They
were supplied with rations, only a few ounces less
than the over-generous ration of the United States
army.

The quality of the rebel ration was as satisfactory
to the rebels as the quantity. The corn-bread was
excellent, made by themselves from fine meal. One
of them naively observed that he preferred it to
Northern meal ! They had never had any meal fur
nished them of that quality which was ground with
the cobs and husks, and in which whole grains of
corn occasionally appeared. This inferior kind, they
said, was " given to stock."

The only time in which they suffered any privation
was on a forced march, when they were in advance
of their supplies — a matter liable to occur in any
army.

In winter they lived in cabins or tents, well
warmed, and well supplied with fuel. None ever
suffered from the cold. In summer they were shel
tered by tents, but these they left behind when on
a campaign. They were fully supplied with clothing
and with blankets or oilcloths. A requisition on the
quartermaster could always procure any article that

REBEL HOSPITALS FOE THEIK OWN MEN WELL KEPT. 73

was necessary. When engaged in active service,
however, they carried as little as possible, only the
clothes they had on and a single blanket, but no man
was restricted as to the amount he might carry. It
may be imagined what a condition they were in, under
this system, as respects dirt, vermin, and rags, after a
long campaign and a pitched battle.

They describe the hospitals, both in the city and
in the field, as comfortable, and with sufficient medical
attendance. The bedding and sheets in Hospital
No. 4, in Richmond, was said by one of them to be
fully as good as those on David's Island, New York.
There were also the usual delicacies for the sick.

From all this, it appears that the Southern army
has been, ever since its organization, completely
equipped in all necessary respects, and that the men
have been supplied with everything which would
keep them in the best condition of mind and body,
for the hard and desperate service in which they
were engaged. They knew nothing of famine or
freezing. Their wounded and sick were never
neglected.

So do the few details of fact that could be extracted,
without suspicion of their object, from the soldiers
of the Southern army, confirm the reasoning which
accounts for its efficiency.

The conclusion is inevitable. It was in their
power to feed sufficiently, and to clothe, whenever
necessary, their prisoners of war. They were per
fectly able to include them in their military estab-

74 ABLE TO FEED, CLOTHE, AND SHELTER PRISONERS.

lishment ; but they chose to exclude them from
the position always assigned to such, and in no
respect to treat them like men taken in honorable
warfare. Their commonest soldier was never com
pelled, by 'hunger, to eat the disgusting rations fur
nished at the Libby to United States officers. Their
most exposed encampment, however temporary, never
beheld the scenes of suffering which occurred daily
and nightly among United States soldiers in the
encampment on Belle Isle.

The excuse and explanation are swept away.
There is nothing now between the Northern people
and the dreadful reality.

VI.

The treatment of Rebel Prisoners at United States Stations — The
humane orders of the Government — Scene at Lincoln Hospital —
Interior of the Station at Fort Delaware — The Hospital on David's
Island — Johnson's Island — Point Lookout — Tender care of sick
and -wounded Rebels at all these Stations — Kind treatment of the
wounded prisoners— Abundant shelter, fuel, clothing, and food fur
nished them — Facilities for bathing and exercise — Small mortality— No
robbing — No shooting — No abuse — Christian burial of the dead — The
contrast of the Union and Rebel prisoners at the moment of exchange.

THE moment has now come for the reverse to
this melancholy picture, and it will be as grateful
to the American people at large, as it was to the
Commissioners.

Early in the progress of their investigation, while
in the midst of the sufferers taking their testi
mony, and occasionally hearing floating and irre
sponsible rumors of equal neglect and cruelty on
our part toward the rebel prisoners in our hands,
they determined to make a full inquiry into the
conduct and management of United States Stations
where they were confined.

A large proportion of the testimony will be found
devoted to this department. The variety and the
widely separate sources of the evidence, will only
make more conspicuous its absolute unity and truth.

It reveals an impressive contrast, point for point,

(75)

76 HUMANE ORDEBS OF THE U. S. GOVEENMENT.

with that which haa just been narrated, and has
turned out to be entirely confirmatory of what
Quartermaster-General Meigs declares in his letter,*
" that such prisoners are treated with all the con
sideration and kindness that might be expected of
a humane and Christian people."

The design of the Government is fully exhibited
in the circular orders issued by Colonel Hoffman,
Commissary-General of Prisoners.f

The ration was to be generous and abundant; its
elements of the fullest variety. The amount issued
being greater than a man could consume, the excess
over that which was given was to go. to the formation
of a Prison fund, which was to be applied in various
ways, (not expressly provided for in the army regula
tions,) that would promote the health and comfort of
the prisoners.

Army clothing was to be furnished by requisition,
whenever needed, the only difference being that the
buttons and trimmings were to be taken from the
coats, and the skirts cut so short that the captives
should not be mistaken for United States soldiers.

Careful accounts were to be kept of the money
and valuables taken from each prisoner, which ac
counts were to accompany him, if transferred from
one post to another ; and when paroled, the articles

* See page 197.

f The whole document will be found on page 203.

THE LINCOLN HOSPITAL. 77

were to be returned. They were to be permitted
to correspond with their friends. All articles that
were sent to them were to be delivered, if not con
traband.

The hospital had its separate provisions. The
keepers in charge were to be " responsible to the com
manding officer for its good order, and the proper
treatment of the sick" A fund for each hospital was
to be created, as in other United States hospitals, and
to be expended for the comfort of the sick, and
" objects indispensably necessary to promote the sani
tary condition of the hospital."

The minute directions of the entire order look
equally to the security of the prisoners, and to all that
is necessary for them in health or sickness.

The commissioners are able to testify that the
order is fully carried out. They took pains not only
to procure evidence as to the fact, but to see for them
selves.

Two members of the Commission came, without
previous notice, to the Lincoln hospital in Washing
ton, where they had heard that several hundred of the
rebels lay, having been wounded in the recent battles.
The chief object of the visitors at the time has been
already mentioned. But they were able also to
observe how well the hospital was conducted.

Although arriving at an unseasonable hour, when
the surgeons and nurses were examining and dressing
the wounds, they were instantly admitted, with marked

78 KINDNESS TO THE PATIENTS.

and cordial courtesy, by Chief Surgeon McKee, upon
his learning the mission upon which they had come.

The wards were airy and neat, free from offensive
odor, the beds so clean that the visitors sat upon them
while taking testimony. The men themselves were
cheerful and good-natured, the more slightly wounded
crowding up curiously to know what was going on.
until requested to retire. Some were sitting by their
beds reading novels or odd numbers of periodicals, now
and then a bible. They were always ready to con
verse, and answered the questions that were put to
them without hesitation.

The visitors could see no difference in these two
wards from the twenty or more ethers in the same
hospital that were appropriated to the United States
soldiers. The patients were mostly in clean, white
underclothing, and if it had not been for a figure
in butternut-colored uniform here and there, nothing
would have suggested the presence of an enemy.

The wounds were being tenderly unbandaged and
dressed by the surgeons and their assistants. Kind
ness and attention were visible everywhere. Female
nurses and a white-hooded Sister of Charity were
constantly moving from bed to bed. One of them
was seen carrying a waiter of iced porter to the
wounded, and holding the glass to the lips of the more
helpless.

The spectacle was in remarkable contrast with that
which had been described by Dr. Ferguson, only the

UNITED STATES PEISON AT FORT DELAWARE. 79

evening before, as witnessed by him in Hospital No.
21, Richmond, where our soldiers lay amid the secre
tions of their body, and the purulent discharges of
their wounds, dying of neglect, and for want of the
commonest medical attention.

Some time after this, two members of the com
mission made an especial visit to Fort Delaware, for
the express purpose of examining into the prison and
hospital arrangements there, in order to give, in this
narrative, their own direct testimony and description, as
well as whatever evidence they might be able to collect.

They fixed upon Fort Delaware because it was one
of the most extensive of the United States stations for
prisoners of war, and because it had been the object
of various rebel reports.*

The following description is from notes taken on
the spot by one of the party, and written out immedi
ately afterward :

" The prisoners numbering between eight and nine
thousand were lodged outside the walls of the fort,
(which is situated on an island) in well built and ven
tilated barracks, and have free access at all hours to

* A recent specimen from the Rictimond Dispatch, July 14th. Speak
ing of some returned prisoners, the account runs : " They were subse
quently imprisoned at Fort Delaware, where those who had money fared
pretty well, but others, less fortunate, suffered many privations. They
state that the condition of the Confederate prisoners at that point is
deplorable in the extreme, and strongly urge the adoption of some meas
ures fcr their relief. Sickness is very prevalent among them, while the
rations are meagre and of poor quality."

80 SUPERIOR QUALITY OF THE FOOD.

the adjoining enclosures for air and exercise. They
were permitted, and, indeed, urged to bathe in squads
in the river and to wash in sluices to which the
tide had access twice in the twenty-four hours, and
the facilities for these purposes were so great that
any man might, if he chose, wash his whole person
every day, and swim in the Delaware twice a week.

" Every man is furnished with a commodious bunk,
with the head raised at a proper inclination above the
feet, presenting a striking contrast to a Confederate
prison, where prisoners sleep on the floor, or on the
earth, and have not even a bunch of straw between
them and the ground.

" The result of these precautions, and of the superior
ventilation of the barracks was to render the quarters
of the prisoners free from the unpleasant odor
which generally exists where large number of men
are brought together, and compelled to live in
common. The same remark applies to the hospitals,
which are spacious, clean, and in good order.

" When we went through the barracks, shortly
before sunset, the men were generally out of doors
walking about, talking, playing cards, washing, or
occupying themselves in other ways. They appeared in
general, contented and cheerful. Many of them had
improvised sutler's shops, and were seated on the
ground or boxes, selling coffee, broiled ham, bread, and
other articles of food to their comrades, who were
gathered around laughing and chatting.

THEIR HEALTH AND COMFORT STUDIED. 81

" The means to prosecute this traffic came, we were
told, from sympathizing friends in different parts of
the Union, and from small sums of money paid as
wages to such of the men as were willing to be detailed
to perform various duties outside of the barracks at
different points on the island. We tasted the coffee,
which was sold for five cents a pint, and found it well
made and palatable.

" Much good humor seemed to prevail, and there
was not a little good-natured laughter while we were
making the purchase. We were struck by the assured
yet affable air with which General Schopf moved
through the dense throng that pressed to look at the
visitors. He was unattended eve~n by an orderly.
His manner indicated a consciousness that he had
nothing to fear from individual resentment.

o

" In addition to the water of the river which, as
already stated is accessible at all times for the
purposes of cleanliness, thirty thousand gallons of
drinking water are brought every day from the
Brandywine, and distributed among the prisoners and
the soldiers of the garrison, by means of large hose
and a forcing pump worked by a steam engine.
Health and comfort are therefore studied in this as in
other particulars, but it was at first found difficult to
prevent the prisoners from drinking from shallow
wells dug by themselves, the water of which is brack
ish, and has a tendency to produce disease.

" The rations issued to the prisoners were the subject

6

82 CLOTHING- FUENISHED.

of an attentive examination. "We tasted the bread,
which is made of four parts of flour and one of Indian
meal, and found it of superior quality, sweet and
palatable ; better indeed than is met with at hotels or
places of resort in the country ; quite as good as may
be found in any well-ordered family. The meat was
also sweet and of good quality. The diet is judiciously
varied, potatoes and fresh vegetables being furnished
in large quantities, wherever the health of the men
appears to require it. The rations actually received
by the prisoners until the 1st of June, 1864, were
nearly three pounds of solid food for each man per day,
besides coffee, sugar, molasses, etc. The quantity was
then reduced to about thirty-four and a half ounces
per diem.*

"The health of the prisoners is as carefully con
sidered in the matter of clothing, as in other respects ;
those who require blankets or additional garments
being supplied with them on proper application.
Large numbers of coats, pantaloons, etc., were issued
in this way during the past and previous winters.
When a prisoner is placed on the sick list, and taken
to the hospital, he is put in a warm bath, supplied
with clean under-clothing, and then laid on a bed
with clean sheets, in an airy apartment, where his

* "The reduction recently made in the prisoner's ration," writes
Quartermaster-General Meigs, June 6th, "was for the purpose of bring
ing it nearer to what the rebel authorities profess to allow their soldiers,
and no complaint has been heard of its insufficiency."

NO SHOOTING OF PEISONEES. 83

condition is, so far as his disease will permit, one not
only of comparative but absolute comfort.

" The percentage of deaths at Fort Delaware, was
during some months of last autumn and winter, large.
This result arose from a variety of causes originating
before the prisoners were captured and brought to the
island, and which the officers there could not at first
remove or control. Among these may be enumerated
the want of vaccination, which seems to be as rare
among the poorer classes of the South as it is general
at the North ; the attempts made by the prisoners to
vaccinate each other, which often caused disease of a
dangerous type from the character of the virus em
ployed ; and the bad state of the body of many of the
men taken at and near Vicksburg, who were broken
down by hardships and fatigues sustained before their
capture, as well as by the influence of the terrible
malaria of the South.

"But while the ratio of mortality among the Ameri
can soldiers in the hands of the rebels has continued
to augment with time, the health of the Confederate
prisoners at Fort Delaware has, on the contrary, im
proved under the influence of good food or kind treat
ment, until in May, 1864, but sixty-two died out of
eight thousand one hundred and twenty-six confined
at the island.

" The cruel and unusual rule by which an approach
to the windows from inadvertence, or for the most
inEocent purpose, is made an offence punishable with

84 INSTRUCTIONS TO THE GUARD.

death in the Confederate prisons, is, it need hardly
be said, unknown in Fort Delaware. Few restraints
are imposed, and those only snch as are imperatively
necessary for the preservation of order and cleanliness
among a numerous and motley crowd, which necessa
rily contains some men of gross and filthy habits." *

Shooting was never resorted to unless a rule was
grossly and persistently violated. Even then the di
rection was to order the prisoner " three distinct times
to halt;" and if he " failed to halt, when so ordered, the
sentinel must enforce his order by bayonet or ball.''
There were but five instances of shooting, under these
instructions, and they were in every case in obedience
to them.

It is hardly worth while to notice the question
whether any were shot for looking out of the windows.
No such order was ever given in this, or any other
United States Station. Here the windows were seen
filled with the prisoners.

The Commissioners are under great obligations to
General Schopf, Commander of the Post, for the
courtesy shown them, in personally conducting them
over the station, and to the surgeons and officers in
attendance, who readily furnished all the evidence
that was asked for. It was here that the documents,
the general circular, the orders, and the schedules of
rations and clothing were obtained.

The testimony is exceedingly full and satisfactory

* From notes by Judge Hare.

IMMENSE QUANTITY OF CLOTHING DISTRIBUTED. 85

on all points. It will be noticed that a prison fund
was formed, in accordance with the regulations, from
the excess of the ration issued over the ration given,
and that the amount was spent for vegetables and
articles of convenience. But even with this withhold
ing of part, so great was the abundance of food, that
the prisoners hid loaves of bread, crackers and meat
under the bunks. These were repeatedly found there
in large quantities during an examination of the
barracks.

Captain Clark was able to save sometimes between
two and three thousand dollars a month out of surplus
rations, and yet every care was taken that too much
was not withheld. The overseers were frequently
Jisked if the prisoners complained of not having
enough, and were ordered "to give them more, and let
no man want." A complaint was scarcely ever heard.

It will be noticed what enormous quantities of cloth
ing were issued, at this post alone, to the prisoners.
En eight months over thirty-five thousand articles
»vere distributed, comprising every species of clothing
from shoes and stockings, shirts and drawers, to
woolen blankets and great coats. Most of these were
given on the approach of cold weather.

Every one without a blanket or overcoat of his own
was provided with one. All had at least two blank
ets, and those who were delicate had more.

The barracks were made comfortable by stoves.
Fuel was never wanting, and the fires were kept up

86 DAVID'S ISLAND HOSPITAL.

by attendants. No less than thirteen hundred tons of
coal were consumed last winter and spring by the
prisoners.

In hot weather equal provision was made for their
comfort, especially in the hospitals. The visitors no
ticed in the latter, even green shades covering the
windows, and a water-cooler in every ward, filled with
ice, for the free use of the patients.

Gen. Schopf informed the visitors that in every
case of death, the body was removed to a neat grave
yard on the opposite shore, and the burial service of
the Episcopal church was read over the grave.

It was found, by further investigation, that the
arrangements of every other United States Prison
Station and Hospital were the same as those of Fort
Delaware. The same regulations were observed in all.
The identical diet-table, containing the minute direc
tions of the Surgeon-General at Washington, was
hung up as conspicuously in the hospital for rebels
as that for the United States soldier.

The De Camp General Hospital, on David's Island,
New York, was a counterpart of that just described.
The testimony taken by one of the commissioners, is
almost a repetition of that taken at Fort Delaware.
The only variations which occur are additions to the
facts already recited.

None of the prisoners were ever deprived of money
or valuables. Some of them had arrived in a lilthy,
horrible condition, ragged, barefooted and bareheaded,

CAEE OF THE SICK AXD WOUNDED. 87

covered with vermin, (a condition easily accounted for
by the peculiar and desperate style of Southern cam
paigning, where no tents or baggage were allowed to
encumber, and the soldier had to wear the same un
changed suit through many days of forced marching
and violent fighting.) Within a few hours the men,
having been stripped of all their clothing, which was
removed and burned, were washed, furnished with clean
linen, and placed on clean, well-aired beds. Full suits
of clothing were issued to them. When the weather
became cold they were removed from tents to spacious
pavilions, furnished with abundant fuel. No one was
ever frostbitten. None were ever shot at. They were
given the whole island inside the line of sentries for
exercise. Formerly they had been allowed to go fish
ing and clamming, till several escaped, when the line
of sentries was placed on the beach.

They had precisely the same rations as the Federal
sick and wounded. Drinking water, cooled with ice.
was furnished in profusion. Soap, towels, and combs
were distributed for their private use. There was a
nurse to every ten of them.*

It will not surprise the reader to hear of the small
mortality, although nine-tenths were suffering from
wounds.

One most pleasing feature of this hospital is devel
oped in the testimony of Rev. Mr. Lowry, its chaplain.

* Each pavilion had from two to four water closets. Chairs and bed
pans were provided for those unable to reach them. Ample structures
were also erected on the beach.

88 JOHNSON'S ISLAND.

A library of two thousand volumns, formerly used by
United States soldiers, was even more used by the
Confederates. They were furnished with Bibles,
Prayer Books, and other religious publications. Re
ligious services were held twice on Sunday, and two
or three times during the week. The chapel, which
would accommodate three hundred, was often crowded.
Whenever a death occurred, the funeral was conducted
according to the form of the Episcopal church.

Johnson's Island, in Ohio, has been an especial
subject of rebel mis-statements. It is a pleasant,
healthy spot, three hundred acres in extent, in San-
dusky Bay, close in the neighborhood of Kelley?s
Island, which is a favorite place of summer resort.
The two Islands are much alike.

The climate is testified to be as favorable to health
as that of Newport or Saratoga in summer, or Cin-
cinnafi and Dayton in winter. Like Fort Delaware
it is a military prison and hospital. The buildings
are spacious, new, and in good order. The sanitary
and other regulations of similar stations are observed
here in all particulars.

Although in winter the weather was so cold that
the lake was frozen to the main land, three miles
distant, and the government teams, conveying sup
plies, were able to cross upon the ice, yet so well
warmed were the barracks, that not a single instance
of treatment for exposure to cold was known, except,
in the case of some who attempted to escape.

A spacious square, enclosed by the buildings

POINT LOOKOUT. 89

was given up to the prisoners for exercise, and they
were allowed to be in the open air all day.

The statistics of mortality will be astonishing to
read, after hearing the rebel stories. In twenty-one
months, out of an aggregate of six thousand four
hundred and ten prisoners, there were only one
hundred and thirty-four deaths. The number in prison
at one time never exceeded two thousand seven hun
dred. In the months of May and June, last, there
were about two thousand three hundred prisoners.
In May five died ; in June only one !

Point Lookout was still another post which had been
subjected to the rebel statement that the prisoners
there suffered from cruelty and neglect. Miss Dix, who
visited those very prisoners, sufficiently disposes of the
slander. She says : " They were supplied with vege
tables, with the best wheat bread, and fresh and salt
meat three times daily in abundant measure — the full
government ration.

" In the camp of about nine thousand rebel
prisoners, there were but four hundred reported to
the surgeon. Of these one hundred were confined
to their beds, thirty were very sick, and perhaps
fifteen or twenty would never recover.

" The hospital food consisted of beef-tea, beef-soup,
rice, milk-punch, milk, gruel, lemonade, stewed fruits,
beefsteak, vegetables, and mutton. White sugar was
employed in cooking. The supplies were, in fact,
more ample and abundant than in hospitals where
our own men were under treatment."

90 CONTRAST AT THE MOMENT OF EXCHANGE.

The surgeons of the various hospitals, in several
instances, allude to the excellent condition of the
prisoners when discharged and exchanged, and in the
statement of Miss Dix will be found a brief descrip
tion of their appearance when leaving the flag-of-
truce boat for their own lines : " All were in vigorous
health, equipped in clothes furnished by the United
States Government, many of them with blankets and
haversacks."
.*

And here terminates the contrast, which the reader
has probably been drawing throughout, between the
military stations for prisoners, North and South, Union
and rebel.

But the contrast must have been overwhelming at
the point to which this narrative has now come. When
the flag-of-truce boat landed within the rebel lines, the
two systems confronted each other. On one side,
hundreds of feeble, emaciated men, ragged, filthy,
hungry, diseased, and dying ; on the other an equal
number of strong and hearty men, clad in the army
clothing of the Government against which they had
fought, having been humanely sheltered, fed, cleansed
of dirt, cured of wounds and disease, and now hon
orably returned in a condition to fight that Government
again.

The public sentiment of the North, outraged as it
may have been, would never have permitted any other
than this Christian and magnanimous course.

VII.

The three points now investigated — The conclusion of the Commission
ers — These privations and sufferings were designedly inflicted — The
late appeal to Divine and human judgment upon their cause by the
rebel government — The spirit of tbat cause identical with the spirit
which originated and defends it.

Such are the facts which have been brought to
light by the inquiry of the Commissioners.

There were three points before them to be inves
tigated. They were requested to ascertain " the true
physical condition of the prisoners recently discharged
by exchange from confinement at Eichmond and else
where." They were also requested to ascertain
whether these prisoners "did in fact, during such
confinement, suffer materially for want of food, or
from its defective quality, or from other privations
and sources of disease."

This duty has been performed, and the result is
now before the public.

There was one other point which the Commis
sioners were requested to make clear : " Whether
the privations and sufferings of the prisoners were

designedly inflicted on them by military or other

(91)

92 WERE THESE CRUELTIES INTENTIONAL?

authority of the rebel government, or were due to
causes which such authorities could not control."

This question has already been alluded to digres-
sively, but its full answer properly belongs to this
stage of the narrative, when the whole field of the
investigation is before the reader.

The feeling lingered in the minds of the Commis
sioners as the investigation went on, that this dreadful
condition of things might be attributable to even
other causes than the possible destitution of the
rebel government. This latter consideration, it will
be remembered, was at an early moment, entirely
disposed of. Any unconscious or unintentional form
of crime is less reprehensible than that which is
knowingly or deliberately committed. The question
therefore suggested itself whether all this might not
have been owing to the negligence and incompetence
incident to an immature social system, or to the
thoughtlessness of a reckless people, or to the misman
agement of an improvident government. This was the
only alternative, and was sufficiently discreditable. But
it was altogether more probable that a whole people
and government could unite in being thoughtlessly and
inconsiderately cruel, than consciously and purposely
so. The latter was something too revolting to be
entertained or believed. The whole current of
public feeling and public principle generated by
the spread of Christianity, and the progress of
civilization, is so averse to anything of the land

THE EEBEL PKISOX AT TYLE3 IX TEXAS. 93

that the majority of people are made almost incapable
of comprehending, or even imagining such a state of
mind in any community.

And yet it is to this very conclusion that every
one must come who carefully weighs the testimony.
Every doubt and misgiving successively disappears.
No other theory will cover the immensity and
variety of that system of abuse to which our soldiers
are subjected. That abuse is, in all its forms, too
general, too uniform, and too simultaneous to be
otherwise than the result of a great arrangement.
One prison-station is like another — one hospital re
sembles another hospital. This has been made
especially apparent by intelligence that has reached
the public just as this investigation is closing, and
this report is being written. The remote prison at
Tyler, in Texas, sends out a tale of suffering identical
with that described in these pages. It was only a few
weeks ago, that the streets of New Orleans beheld
a regiment of half-starved and half-naked men, who
had just been released from that station. Still more
heart-rending is the later account, given in a memor
ial to the President, from Andersonville, Georgia,
and in the full description, verified on oath, of what
is now being suffered there by the imprisoned sol
diers of our army. It would appear to be Belle-Isle
five times enlarged, and ten-fold intensified. An
enormous multitude of thirty-five thousand men are
crowded together in a square enclosure or stockade

94 THE SAME SUFFERING IN EVERY REBEL PRISON.

of about twenty-five acres, with a noxious swamp at
the centre, occupying one-fourth of the whole space.
Here the prisoners suffer not only the privations
already mentioned, but others peculiar to circum
stances of a worse description.* In this pestilential
prison they are dying at the rate of one hundred and
thirty a day, on an average! The Commissioners
allude to this station not as part of the evidence
taken by themselves, but as an interesting, authentic,
and corroborative illustration of the point now under
consideration.

It is the same story everywhere: — prisoners of war
treated worse than convicts, shut up either in suffo
cating buildings, or in outdoor enclosures, without
even the shelter that is provided for the beasts of
the field ; unsupplied with sufficient food ; supplied
with food and water injurious and even poisonous;
compelled to live in such personal uncleanliness as to
generate vermin ; compelled to sleep on floors often
covered with human filth, or on ground saturated with
it ; compelled to breathe an air oppressed with an in
tolerable stench ; hemmed in by a fatal dead-line, and
in hourly danger of being shot by unrestrained and
brutal guards ; despondent even to madness, idiocy
and suicide ; sick of diseases, (so congruous in char
acter as to appear and spread like the plague,) caused
by the torrid sun, by decaying food, by filth, by vermin,

* For the full account see Supplement, page 259.

PRIVATIONS AND SUFFERINGS DESIGNEDLY INFLICTED. 95

by malaria, and by cold ; removed at the last moment,
and by hundreds at a time, to hospitals corrupt as a
sepulchre, there, with few remedies, little care and no
sympathy, to die in wretchedness and despair, not
only among strangers, but among enemies too resent
ful to have pity or to show mercy.

These are positive facts. Tens of thousands of
helpless men have been and are now being disabled
and destroyed by a process as certain as poison, and
as cruel as the torture or burning at the stake,
because nearly as agonizing and more prolonged.
This spectacle is daily beheld and allowed by the
rebel government.

No supposition of negligence, or thoughtlessness,
or indifference, or accident, or inefficiency, or destitu
tion, or necessity, can account for all this. So many
and such positive forms of abuse and wrong cannot
come from negative causes.

The conclusion is unavoidable, therefore, that " these
privations and sufferings" have been "designedly in
flicted by the military and other authority of the
rebel government," and cannot have been " due to
causes which such authorities could not control."

Further than this, the Commissioners are not re
quired to express an opinion. Whether or not they
are the result of an infuriated and vindictive ani
mosity against the Federal government and people,
or the result of a pre-determined policy, deliberately
formed, to discourage and affright our soldiers, to

96 NO A.BUSES SANCTIONED BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

destroy them, or to disable them for further military
service, or to compel our Government to an exchange
on other than the terms to which it is in honor and
by necessity committed, the public are in a position
to decide.

The Commissioners have now performed their pain
ful task. It has not been a grateful duty to narrate
facts so unworthy of any people, especially of one
heretofore so highly respected, so much admired,
and in so many respects a credit to the American
name. That name is shamed and dishonored by their
exposure.

But there is one source of pride and congratulation: —
that, whatever abuses may have been developed on the
Northern side of this war, none of them were origi
nated or sanctioned by the government. In every
case they have been the impulsive acts of subordi
nates here and there — and such are incident to any
conflict. The noble and magnanimous manner in which
the government treats the enemies to its peace and
prosperity, when they have become helpless prisoners
in its hands, is, alone, a sufficient manifestation of the
spirit which animates it in waging this war. No
sentiment of anger or resentment has actuated it from
the beginning. The condition of its prison stations
and hospitals is the best and proudest exponent of the
cause of humanity which it seeks to maintain. This
praise will be awarded it by the historian and by

THE SOCIAL CAUSE OF SOUTHERN INHUMANITY. 97

posterity, when the story of this stupendous struggle
shall be written.

Can as much be said of the cause which stands
i a opposition to it ? The facts of this narrative, and of
others that will be yet more complete, will also enter
into the future history of this conflict, but will form
its most tragical chapter. It will in that day be
known whether the spirit which animates the South
is not also the spirit which has generated the cause
of the South. The spirit which animates a cause,
gives the character to that cause. A people, like an
individual, is estimated by its actions and by 'its
motives. Perhaps the world will yet discover a
strange and reciprocal working of influences in the
production of that which now opposes the republican
progress of this government. Perhaps the social
theory, already so widely accepted, may yet be fully

established, which attributes the alienation of the

f

Southern people to a simple difference of feeling
on a question of humanity. A too positive denial of
humanity to another race, and a too positive con
tempt for a poorer class of their own race, have
fostered those perverted principles, which would
undermine a government filled with a more generous
idea, and excite a hatred toward the people who would
uphold it. As an exponent of the inhumanity of
the Southern cause, it is not unjust, therefore, to
point to its prisons and hospitals, where disregard

7

98 EEBEL APPEAL TO DIVINE AND HUMAN JUDGMENT.

of the sacredness of human life, and the cry of
human suffering, has such an extraordinary mani
festation.

And in the face of all this, the confederate con
gress, with the approval of the confederate president,
issued, on the 14th of June last, a manifesto, of which
the following is the concluding declaration :

" We commit our cause to the enlightened judgment
of the world, to the sober reflections of our adversaries
themselves, and to the solemn and righteous arbitra
ment of heaven."

Can this appeal, to both Divine and human judg
ment, be really sincere, or is it only a rounded and
rhetorical termination of a state paper] Is the rebel
government really so unconscious of this barbarous
warfare, that it confidently expects -the respect and
sympathy of the civilized world 1 Is it really so uncon
scious of vindictive cruelty, that it as confidently ex
pects a revulsion in its favor from a community whose
fathers and brothers and sons lie piled by thousands ifn
pits and trenches, not on the battle-field, but in the
neighborhood of prisons and hospitals ] Is it really so
unconscious of crime that it claims even the favora
ble judgment of Him, unto whom all hearts are
open, from whom no secrets are hid, and who re
quires of man to deal justly and to love mercy] Is
it really anxious to stand before that bar, whose

SOUTHED INCONSISTENCY. 99

final discrimination between good and evil, it has
been revealed, shall rest upon the single fact of
humanity or inhumanity: whether the passions of
anger and hate have been controlled, whether enemies
have been forgiven, whether privation and suffering-
have been relieved] In view of the powerless captive,
hungry, naked, sick and wounded, does it really
await "the solemn and righteous arbitrament" of
Him, to-day, who will hereafter say to the cruel and
the unmerciful :

" I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat : I
was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger,
and ye took Me not in: naked and ye clothed Me not:
sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not?'

Let the Southern conscience listen ! Let it re
member that the judgment of Heaven is on the side
of humanity, and against cruelty and oppression, that
a wrong done to man is a wrong done to God, who
will make the cause of the suffering His own, and
will avenge Himself on His enemies :

" Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not
to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me !"

And here the Commissioners leave the subject.
Their inquiry was originated, and has been pursued,
in the hope that it might, by awakening further atten
tion, be one of the means which would bring about an
abandonment by the rebel government of its prison

100 THE BEST RESULT OF THIS INQUIRY.

and hospital system. The many and simultaneous
exposures which have been made, may possibly
induce, at least, a prudence which may work the
same result as a better motive. Already there are
symptoms of some such movement, and of an admis
sion, even at this late moment, of the misery that has
been produced, a movement and admission whether
made from necessity or self-interest does not yet
appear.*

But whatever the event may be, this inquiry
will have worked its best purpose, if its facts should
ever reach that nobler portion of the Southern
people, who are really chivalrous and really religious,
who have not been committed to these abuses, who
have been kept in ignorance of them, and lead to a
protest and a revulsion that will compel their govern
ment to a repudiation of the iniquity, and to a course
more worthy of a civilized and Christian people.

* It has not been thought necessary to allude to the subject of the sus
pension of the cartel of exchange, as it had but little bearing on the
points to be investigated. But the lately published letter from Major-
General Butler, Commissioner of Exchange, to the Confederate Com-
mmissioner, Ould, is of interest and importance at the present juncture.
It will be found printed entire in the supplement.

The following extract from General Butler's letter has a connection
with the above remark in the report :

"I unite with you cordiaPy, Sir, in desiring a speedy settlement of
all these questions, in view of the great suffering endured by our pris
oners in the hands of your authorities, of which you so feelingly speak.
Let me ask, in view of that suffering, why you have delayed eight
months to answer a proposition, which by now accepting, you admit to
be right, just, and humane, allowing that suffering to continue so long?

SYMPTOMS OF AX EXCHANGE. 101

One cannot help thinking, even at the risk of being deemed unchari
table, that the benevolent sympathies of the Confederate authorities
have been lately stirred by the depleted condition of their armies, and
a desire to get into the field, to effect the present campaign, the hale,
hearty, and well-fed prisoners held by the United States, in exchange
forjhe half-starved, sick, emaciated, and unserviceable soldiers of the
United States now languishing in your prisons. "

The following paper having been read before the
Commission, by DR. WALLACE, it was, on motion
of DR. DELAFIELD, adopted by the Commission,
and ordered to be appended to their Report.

(103)

MEDICAL REPORT.

To DR. VALENTINE MOTT,

Chairman, etc.

MB. CHAIRMAN: —

According to the direction of the Commission, I lay
before you certain considerations relating to the treatment
adopted by the authorities of the States in rebellion to
wards United States soldiers held by them as prisoners of
war, with the view of determining the influence of this
treatment upon the hygiene and mortality of its subjects.
I shall ground my remarks upon the evidence appended —
upon the opinions of reliable scientific authorities — and to
some, though slight degree, upon our own personal observa
tion.

In investigating the subject before us, the ques
tion of food, takes rank as of first importance ; and, Food,
in considering this point, there are certain well es
tablished facts relating to the subject of alimentation, to

which we must refer.

(105)

106 MEDICAL REPORT.

Ill deciding upon the quantity of food requisite
S fo"» man. for the due support of a man, Professor Dalton*
says that " any estimate of the total quantity should
state also the kind of food used," as "the total quantity will
necessarily vary with the quality, since some articles con
tain much more alimentary material than others:" And

Surgeon-General Hammondf says, " it is necessary
tbodracterof that the food of man should consist of a variety of

substances, in order that the several functions of
the organism may be properly carried on; no fact in
dietetics is better established than this:" And Professor
DunglisonJ speaks to the same end thus: "man is so
organized as to be adapted for living on both animal and
vegetable substances, and if we lay aside our mixed nutri
ment, and restrict ourselves wholly to the products of the
one or the other kingdom, scurvy supervenes-!

Dalton states that the amount of solid food required
during twenty-four hours by a man in full health and
taking free exercise in the open air, is, of bread, nineteen
ounces; meat, sixteen ounces; and butter, three and a half
ounces; in all, thirty-eight and a half ounces." Hammond
places the amount of solid food " required to maintain the
organism of a healthy adult American, up to the full mea
sure of physical and mental capability, at about forty
ounces, of which two- thirds should be vegetable, and one-
third animal."

* Human Physiology.
t Treatise on Hygiene.
\ Human Health.

§ Professor "Wood in his Treatise on Practice of Medicine, defines
Scurvy to be a disease in which "the blood is depraved, and the system
debilitated, with a tendency to hemorrhage and to local cong< stions."

MEDICAL EEPOET. 107

Moreover, due variety in the food is but second ID
importance to sufficient quantity. (See Pereira on food
and diet.) In fact, the last named physiologist declares
that " no matter how nutritious food may be, it is far better
to exchange it for that even less nutritious, than to continue
an unvarying sameness."

And as to the relation of food to temperature :

,, T T.I • Relation of

" In temperate climates, the seasons exercise an food to tempe
rature.

influence, not only over the quality, but the
quantity of food taken into the system. Most persons eat
more in winter than in summer. The cause is doubtless to
be found in the fact, that, in cold weather a greater quantity
of respiratory food is required in order to keep up the
animal heat, than in hot weather, when the external tem
perature more nearly approaches the temperature of the
body.* "He who is well fed," observes Sir John Eoss,
"resists cold better than the man who is stinted, while the
starvation from cold follows but too soon a starvation in
food." And Sir John Franklin, in his narrative of a jour
ney to the Polar sea, writes, "no quantity of clothing could
keep us warm while we fasted." "In tropical climates and
in hot seasons, the system requires a smaller quantity of
food than in colder countries and in cold seasons."f Indi
viduals whose business requires much bodily exertion, or
that they should spend much of their time in the open air,
eat more than those of sedentary habits. And we have,
from the authority of Carpenter, in his work on Human
Physiology, that "a considerable reduction in the amount
of food sufficient for men in regular active exercise, is, of

* Hammond's Hygiene,
f Pereira, Food and Diet.

108 MEDICAL REPORT.

course, admissible where little bodily exertion ig required,
and where there is less exposure to low temperatures."
_ .. ... The ration of the British Soldier, is, at home

Ration of the ' '

stations, sixteen ounces of bread and twelve
ounces of uncooked meat ; at foreign stations, four ounces
more of meat are allowed. Any extras are bought by the
soldier out of his own funds. The French soldier in the
Crimea had forty-two and five-eighths ounces of solid food,
about ten and a half ounces of which were animal, the
rest vegetable. In time of peace his ration is less. " The
American soldier is better fed than any other in the world..
This is proved by the healthy condition of the troops.
Scurvy, one of the first diseases to make its appearance when
the food is of inferior quality, has prevailed to so slight an
extent, &c."* His ration of solid foodf is about fifty-two
and a half ounces, with a fair range for variety ; and extra
issues of pickles, fruits, and special vegetables, are made,
when the medical officers deem them necessary. This
ration is more than the man is generally able to consume,
and the surplus is resold to the government for his
benefit.

The rations issued for the rebel soldiers held
Rebe^piixmerB ^ our government as prisoners of war, were the
tions.-Katkms. same as for the United States garrison troops and

soldiers on active service, except the bread ration,
which was four ounces less; and the amount given, was, of
solid food, forty -three ounces, besides extra vegetables, etc.,
sometimes, which were (See Captain Clark's evidence) pro
cured by sale of the surplus, as above noted in the case of

* Hammond's Hygiene.

j Assuming soft bread and fresh beef as the basis.

MEDICAL REPORT. 109

the Federal troops. No material change was made until
the first of June, 186-1, since which date the amount given
was reduced to thirty-four and a half ounces, while the
range for variety of articles remained unchanged, and from
the excess of the rations issued, the surplus fund for the use
of the prisoners was larger than before. That this amount
will be sufficient for comfort and health in the warm
weather, and under the inactive life of the prisoner, we
must infer from the statements of Pereira, Hammond, and
Carpenter (above), and may likewise consider proven by
the fact, that at Fort Delaware, even in the cold weather of
the past winters, the prisoners could not consume all that
was given them, and that large 4 quantities of food were
secreted, and wasted by them.'* By authority of the War
Department, the same KEGULATIOXS are observed at all
stations, where prisoners of war are held,f and of course
at all such stations, the same general condition of things
must prevail.

Our evidence exhibits that all needful clothing
and blankets, in some cases even to excess, as SXSSJS1'
well as good and adequate shelter, with sufficient
fuel for comfortable warmth, were furnished by the United
States Government to the rebel prisoners.

In our visit to Fort Delaware we passed through
the barracks and enclosures containing about eight condition of

Rebel Prison-
thousand prisoners. We observed that these men ers-

were in good physical condition, and presented the
aspect of health and strength ; as was the case at other sta
tions, as seen by the appended evidence. The careful atten-

* See also letter from Quartermaster-General Meigs, appended,
f See Appendix.

110 MEDICAL EEPOET.

tion to cleanliness urged, and sometimes even enforced, by
the United States officers in charge, doubtless contributes to
their general good condition in no small degree. We were
unable to observe any difference between the treatment of
the rebels and the United States soldiers in the hospital at
Fort Delaware, or in Lincoln Hospital near Washington.
The evidence proves the same arrangements of ward, and
bed, and diet, to have been made, with all other necessary
appliances, for the rebel as for the Union soldier, in the
time of sickness, at all stations where prisoners of war are
held by the United States Government.

When we come to investigate the testimony in
nt^of relation to the treatment of United States soldiers
r< 3 while prisoners in the hands of the rebels, we find
a most serious difference from the state of things
above described.

We learn from those returned that the rations
given them varied at different times and places,

Union prison-

but their declarations all concur in this, that they

had not food enough to sustain their strength, nor

to satisfy their hunger ; and though these men were held

captive at various times, and for a varying period, and at

various places, yet their average statements are the same

with little limitation.
I

Wheat bread was given to some of them for a short time,

but the bread was generally made of corn meal.

rQaS.ityof The largest daily ration of wheat bread of which

we have evidence, would weigh about eleven (11)

ounces, and the smallest but little more than three (3)

ounces. The largest daily ration of corn bread, was in

bulk from thirty-one (31) to thirty-two (32) cubic inches,

representing rather more than twelve (12) ounces of corn

MEDICAL REPORT. Ill

meal, while the smallest represented but four (4) ounces.
The ration of meat was, in a few instances, from four (4) to
six (6) ounces, but generally about two ounces, though in
some cases it was less than this.

The meat was irregularly given ; not often daily, and to
some, only at intervals of days, or even several weeks, and
when meat was served, the bread was, in many instances
diminished.

About half a pint of soup, containing sweet potato, or
generally beans or peas in amount about two ounces, was
sometimes given, with or without meat in different cases.
The beans and peas were occasionally given raw and dry.

The maximum amount of solid food for one day,
described, was, ... 10 oz. bread.

6 oz. beef.
With half a pint of soup made of the water

in which the beef was boiled, and contain
ing about two ounces of beans or peas, and
therefore representing, . . 2 oz.

Total, ... 18 oz.

The minimum amount was about, . 4 oz. bread.

1 oz. beef.

Total, . . . 5 oz.

And so, between five (5) and eighteen (18) ounces the ra
tions varied, and in the article of meat, especially, was the
great deficiency.

But it is necessary to note the character also of
the rations. The quality of the wheat bread ap- Qua™yeofand

the Ration.

pears to have been good, but that of the corn

112 MEDICAL EEPOBT.

bread decidedly the reverse. It was made of meal which
was coarsely ground and rough, contained all the hull (or
bran), often whole grains of corn, with fragments of cob or
of husk intermingled ; frequently ill-baked, or over-baked,
and sour and musty withal.

The soup was, by universal declaration of the witnesses,
repulsive in odor and disgusting in flavor. It appears to
have been made of the water in which the beef was boiled.
Gravel and sand were the least objectionable of the impur
ities found in it. The beans and peas issued were generally
worm-eaten, and contained these insects in quantities, so
that they would be floating on the surface, or intermixed
throughout the mass of soup and beans.

Dunglison, in the work before quoted, says
thVSunsf that, " Corn bread with those unaccustomed to
its use, is apt to produce diarrhoea, in consequence
probably of the presence of the husk,* with which it is always
more or less mixed, &c. ;" and it is " but little adapted for
those liable to bowel affections, &c." And Dr. Hassall
says, " In those unaccustomed to its use, maize is considered
to excite, and to keep up a tendency to diarrhoea.'^ Every
one is aware of the laxative influence of so-called bran
bread, f which is due to the physical action of the hull of
the grain upon the delicate lining membrane of the stom
ach and bowels, acting thereupon as an excitant or irritant,
though tempered by the bland influence of the wheaten
flour. Now what must be the result when the meal is of
corn, and coarse, and intermixed with hull and grain entire,

* Prof. Dunglison informs me that by the word husk, he intends to
imply that which is commonly denominated bran.
t See Pereira, Food and Diet.

MEDICAL EEPORT. H3

with liusk and cob in fragments, among our Northern
troops, who are, for the most part, " unaccustomed to the
use of corn meal?" We see by the evidence, that some of
the men observed the influence of this bread, in producing
the diarrhoea with which so many were afflicted.

The character of the soup, as above described, would
stamp it as entirely unfit for food, and upon men already
suffering from diarrhoea, the evil influence of such a com
pound is but too plainly to be imagined. The evidence
shows that some could not eat it, though hungry to star
vation.

The average amount of meat allowed, was so
small that it is not worthy of special considera- g£tiSiJe0*y ia
tion ; and as to the variety and cliange of diet, onǤ.
upon which all physiologists lay so great stress, —
it is not in the Kecord, — there was none of it.

How do these amounts and qualities compare

• • T Comparison of

With the maximum forty -three ounces, or the "a0™0^?11
minimum thirty -four and a half ounces, of stand- pr
ard Government food, of excellent quality, with abundant
room for variety, and extra issues of fresh vegetables
according to necessity, which the United States Govern
ment allows its prisoners ? The question may be answered
by contrasting the exhausted, the attenuated, the melan
choly, the imbecile, the dying, and the dead, Union soldiers,
returning home from Eichniond — with the cheerful, healthy,
and vigorous, Southerners, held at, or released from, the
various United States stations referred to in the appended
testimony.

Let us look now at the- consequence of de
ficiency of food, as explained by students and gffilte23.of
observers of the subject.

114: MEDICAL KEPOR1.

In the Medical and Surgical history of the British army
which served in Turkey and the Crimea, we find that
"during January, 1855, by the deficiency of food, the effi
ciency of the whole army was seriously compromised.
Disease was simply the more overt manifestation of a
pathological state of the system, which was all but uni
versal, and merely indicated the worst grades of it. Fever
and affections of the bowels represented the forms in which
morbid actions were usually presented, while gangrene and
scurvy indicated those privations and that exposure from
which these diseases were mainly derived." Again, "in
starvation, the tissues of the body are consumed for the
production of heat, and rapid loss of weight is the conse
quence. The other vital processes all involve decompo
sition of the substance of organs, and add to the loss which
the body undergoes. From insufficient food for a
ducedS6byr£- few weeks, disease is almost invariably induced-

euffieient food. .

typlius and typhoid fever, scurvy and ansemia are
the consequences."* Dr. Carpenter, in his Human Physi
ology, says, " the prisoners confined in Mill Bank Peniten
tiary, in 1823, who had previously received an allowance
of from thirty-one to ' thirty-three ounces of dry nutriment
daily, had this allowance suddenly reduced to twenty-one
ounces, — animal food being almost entirely excluded from
the diet scale. They were at the same time subjected to
a low grade of temperature, and to considerable exertion ;
in the course of a few tueeks, the health of a large proportion
of the inmates began to give way. The first symptoms
were loss of color, and diminution of health and strength,
subsequently diarrhoea, dysentery, scurvy, and lastly ady~

* Hammond's Hygiene.

MEDICAL REPORT. 115

namic fevers, or headache, vertigo, convulsions, maniacal
delirium, apoplexy, &c. After death, ulcerations of the
mucous lining of the alimentary canal were very commonly
found ; fifty-two per cent, were thus affected. That the
reduction of the allowance of food was the main source of
the epidemic, was proved, * * * &c." *

We appeal here to Chossat's Inquiries, resulting

• n t • • n* r> Insufficient

in the proof of this curious effect of insufficient *££*?&?'
nutriment, that it produces an incapability of
digesting even the small amount consumed." " So that in
the end, the results are the same as those of entire depriva
tion of food, the total amount of loss being almost exactly
identical, but its rate being less."

But in addition to a starvation diet, our evi-

Privations

dence furnishes proof of confinement to over, gjjf **••**
crowded rooms, without proper ventilation — of
Want of clothing — want of shelter — and denial of suitable
means of warmth, whether by blankets or by fuel, and this
even during the fall, winter, and spring just passed.

"Overcrowding, imperfect ventilation, and want of
cleanliness, are three conditions usually associated, £5Ig;Po1"
and may be designated by the single term Crowd-
Poisoning"* The evidence exhibits that about twenty
square feet was, in some instances, all the superficial space
I permitted to each man confined in prison. And, on Belle
Isle, it would appear that for a time there was little varia
tion from the same area. "The air of crowded camps and
habitations becomes contaminated through emanations
given off during respiration, through effluvia from the
skin, and by decomposition of the various excreta. The
nitrogenized matter carried into the air from the skin, and

* Woodward ; Camp Diseases.

116 MEDICAL KEPORT. ,

the products arising from the decomposition of the excreta,
are sources of deadly mischief. The effects of overcrowd
ing are not only manifested by the increased violence and
the aclynamic character of all diseases occurring among
those exposed, but the development and severity of the
adynamic fevers appear particularly connected with this
cause."* And again, " To the organic matters emanating
from the human body, more than to any other cause, the
injurious results of overcrowding are to be ascribed."
"The proofs are ample, that the emanations from the
Ifuman body are of a decidedly deleterious character, when
present in large amounts in the atmosphere inhaled. They
are absorbed by the clothing, and even the walls of the
room take them up and retain them for a long time."f
" If animals be kept crowded together in ill-ventilated
apartments, they speedily sicken.":): "The continued
respiration of an atmosphere charged with the exhalations
of the lungs and skin, is the most potent of all the predis
posing causes of disease."!

But Dr. Woodward alludes to " want of cleanli-
Smjetred"" ness" as one of the elements of ordinary crowd-
poisoning. Far more than ordinary was this
" want" in the rebel prisons, especially on Belle Isle. A
reference to the evidence will show that accumulation of
filth of the most noisome character was compelled by
prison discipline; that important accommodations were
denied during the night hours, resulting in unavoidable
soiling of the quarters of the prisoners, while the means of
bathing, though convenient, were to so great an ext*r°

* Woodward. f Hammond.

J Dunglison. § Carpenter.

MEDICAL REPORT. 117

denied the prisoners, as to produce, in a large number
of them, a condition of the skin, which is not only a disease
in itself, but is also a cause of disorders various and
grave.*

We observed the surface of the bodies of a

Condition of

number who suffered thus; it was of most re- j£iou i)rison-
markable aspect; appearing as though it had been
covered with a heavy coat of common varnish, which had
dried, and cracked, and was peeling up in scales of every
size. To the touch, it was as sand-paper of irregular
quality. The cuticle — both effete and living — lay in
masses, separated by fissures of varying extent and depth,
through which watery and bloody fluids were seen exud
ing. The soles of the feet were like the sole of a plasterers
shoe — white, brown and yellow ; the cuticle dried and
broken, and laminated variously.

The functions of the skin, upon which physiologists lay
so great stress, are here almost entirely unperformed, and
hence we have " gastric disturbances, and diarrhoeas," with
suppression of that aeration of the blood — that true respira
tion, which, physiologists tell us, takes place through the
skin. Hence the lungs are overtaxed, and congestions are
induced. And when to this we add the depraved state of
the blood of the sufferers, and their exposures to cold, and
wet, and storm, by day and night, we have, in full quantity,
those general and special conditions, which induce pulmonary
diseases of every grade and character.

On the question of clothing and warmth ; from

Clothing and

what has been shown above, a corollary is directly '

deducible, viz : That if food be in limited quantity, low

See Surgeon Ely's evidence.

118 MEDICAL REPORT.

temperature should be avoided, and external warmth duly
maintained. " Artificial warmth may be made to take the
place of nourishment otherwise required. And there is
adequate ground for considering death by starvation, as
really death from cold. The temperature of the body is
maintained with little diminution till the fat is consumed,
and then rapidly falls, unless it be kept up by heat exter
nally applied,"* Now not only was external heat not
granted by the rebels to their prisoners, but their blankets
•were generally taken from them, as also some of thei'
personal clothing.

Further, "the sick and feeble will not bear tlu.

The sick and .

l* low temperature, which to those in good condition.

acts as a healthful stimulant. In diseases attended with defi
cient power of emulation, congelation of the tissues is liable
to occur, from the effects of a temperature which could not
give rise to it in a healthy subject." We see that diarrhoea,
scurvy, — and these two disorders existing coincidcntly " in
the majority of cases of diarrhoea," — congestion of the lunga
of atonic character, and " debilitas," (as the medical records
of the hospital have it,) all stand out prominently in the
evidence, as being an almost constant condition among those
who have been prisoners in Danville, Va., Richmond, Va.;
and especially on Belle Isle. The authorities hereinbefore
quoted, show that these formidable disorders are the
legitimate offspring of the treatment to which our men have
been subjected while in the hands of the rebels. Shall we
be surprised that diseases obey the laws of their produc
tion, or that they flourish, luxuriant and rank, in a soil
specially prepared for their reception? And are not all

* Carpenter.

MEDICAL EEPOET. 119

these " diseases attended with deficient power of circu
lation?" Are not the subjects of the same "sick and
feeble ?" Is it at all surprising that they cannot bear the
low temperature of a winter on Belle Isle, — clad only in
worn-out or scanty clothing, — with inadequate, or with no
shelter, — with little fire, or generally none at all, — and
having no resting place but the ground, in mud and frost
and snow ? Nay, is it not a cause for wonder that " conge
lation of the tissues" was not even more common among
them ? Our evidence tells of many men freezing on Belle
Isle, to loss of limb, and more, of life.

"We saw cases of " amputation by frost" at the
United States Hospitals, at Baltimore, and Annap- Men frozen.
olis, and the "Quarterly Keport of the hospitals for the
Federal prisoners, Richmond, Ya.," (appended) shows that
of two thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine patients
admitted in January, February, and March, 1864, there were
fifteen cases of gelatio, (or freezing) and fifty of gangrene
from frozen feet ! And from the same document
we find that two thousand one hundred and twenty-

diseased

one, out of the two thousand seven hundred and as above-
seventy -nine, were affected with debility, adynarnic fevers,
diarrhoea, dysentery, diseases of the chest, and scurvy — the
very effects proved above to be produced by starvation, cold,
over-crowding, filth, and exposure; and, as already men
tioned, the testimony of the United States surgeons at
Annapolis and Baltimore, shows that the great majority of
our soldiers received from rebel prisons suffered under the
same affections. These surgeons further declare, that these
diseases did not yield to ordinary medical treat
ment; that they were most successfully managed
by "nullifying the cause?1 that is, by nutrition and

120 MEDICAL REPORT.

stimulation, with especial attention to cleanliness and fresh
air, medical agencies being only accessories, and sometimes
not resorted to at all.

M. Fleury (cours d'hygiene) says : " Sous le nom
liandaers°.n in de jilvrG de famine, M. de Meersman a trace un
tableau complet et methodique de Vttat morlide
que d&veloppe V alimentation insuffisante, et qu'il dit avoir
observe en 1846 et 1847 dans les Flandres beiges." He
then recounts the article, which is too long to bear quota
tion here, but it is a most singularly accurate description of
that which our soldiers returned from rebel prisons state in
regard to their own feelings and sufferings, — of those con
ditions which the United States surgeons at the Annapolis
and Baltimore hospitals have delineated to us, — and which
we witnessed and observed in our visits to the institutions
above mentioned.

It is utterly incorrect to charge the bodily
n" attenuation, the mental imbecility, and the startling

mortalty of J '

uSoS prison- mortality, which prevail so largely among the men
from the prisons of the South, upon the mere
diseases of which they are the subjects. If a man swallow
a poisonous dose of arsenic, he will suffer pain, vomiting,
diarrhoea, ha3morrhages, and convulsions, even unto death ;
are these "more overt manifestations," — these necessary
consequences of the morbific agent applied, — to be con
sidered as the causes of the death ? Or shall we go to the
true first cause direct, and say " the man died from poison
ing by arsenic?"

So have our men died, — from cold and exposure, from
crowd-poisoning, from starvation and from privation, while
the way to death was roughly paved with disease of body

duio'u °arcdn

mortalit

MEDICAL EEPOBT. 121

and of mina, — mere minor manifestations of these allied
powers of evil.

But we further find a similar treatment, — similar

Treatment of

in kind, though modified in degree,— dealt out to

the wounded and the sick on Belle Isle and in
Kichmond. The evidence of those who have been under
the care of the surgeons at these stations is corroborated by
the testimony of Colonel Farnsworth, and by that of
Surgeons Ferguson and Eichards. The latter lay stress
upon the offensive, and " utterly unfit," character of the beds
and bedding, and declare that the diet was " entirely insuf
ficient to give them a proper chance of recovery," and
state further that, there was a deficiency of medical sup
plies in the hospital for Federal prisoners, while the evi
dence is before us that at General Hospital No. 4, Richmond,
the Confederate soldier had "as much good food as he could
eat, with good bedding and sheets ;" and evidence to the same
end appears in relation to " Confederate hospitals in the field."

On the subject of the mortality of Union pris
oners in rebel hands, we find that the " Quarterly ;
Report" above referred to, exhibits a record,1
which, though startling and fearful, is yet easily,
explained by the foregoing considerations. For what can
be expected of men worn out, almost unto death, by the
want of those things which are necessary for the body, —
and then further reduced by disease, — when subjected to
such privations and noxious influences as those described by
Surgeons Ferguson and Richards ? This " Report " shows
a mortality among the sick of rather more than fifty per
cent. !* How does this compare with that at the United

* Four deaths only occurred from wounds.

122 MEDICAL REPORT.

Mortaiit inu States Army General Hospital at Annapolis,
which is only eighteen per cent.? Yet the
cases at Annapolis were all brought by flag-of-truce boat
from City Point, Virginia, and were of the same general
class as those in the " Hospitals for the Federal Prisoners,
Eichmond, Virginia."

Further, we find that " a Confederate official, whose

evidence cannot be questioned, declared that of
Beu?!"!.** tne numbers remaining at Belle Isle, then about

eight thousand, (8,000), about twenty-five died
daily, andthat it would be but a few weeks before the deaths
would couDt fifty a day." From this, we have a mortality
at Belle Isle in a ratio of one hundred and fourteen per cent.
per year, with double this amount in prospect.

Again ; the Macon Journal and Messenger says
AuSnvVne. that " there are now over twenty-seven thousand

(27,000) prisoners at Andersonville, Georgia,
among whom the deaths are from fifty to sixty a day," or
in a ratio of about from sixty-eight to eighty-one per cent, per
year*

Turn now to the mortality among the rebel
rSSware. prisoners at Fort Delaware, where, in addition to

the more ordinary causes of sickness and death
among soldier-prisoners, we find "small-pox, the majority
of the prisoners not having been vaccinated before they
came here." Also, a " prostrated condition of the prisoners
from Vicksburg, a great many of whom had to be carried,

* Since this was written a sworn statement has come to our Lands,
(a copy of which will be found in the Supplement,) whence it appears
that the mortality at Andersonville had increased rapidly, and had
advanced in fact to a ratio of from one hundred and thirty-Jive to one
hundred and fifty -two per cent, per year.

MEDICAL REPORT. 123

on their arrival here, from the boat to the hospital, and
many of whom represented that they had been limited to
half and quarter rations during the siege of Yicksburg ;"
and "prisoners from Yicksburg and the Mississippi Valley
laboring under miasmatic influences, under which a great
number of them died." Yet with all these extra causes of
death, the mortality for the entire year just closed, amonnts
to less than twenty -nine per cent., and when these special
causes ceased to exist, it diminished rapidly, and during the
three months of April, May, and June, it had fallen to
below a ratio of ten and a half per cent, per year, and was
still diminishing, while the sum total of prisoners was yet :
increasing.

Again; at Johnson's Island, Sandusky bay,
Ohio, — the climate of which station has been JJhnfoK aL

land.

stigmatized by our enemies as insalubrious, and
in high degree pernicious to the constitution of the South
erner, — the deaths among the rebel prisoners during the
year 1863, with the prevalence of measles and small-pox,
amounted to less than nine per cent. ; and during May and
June of this year, there were but six deaths, that is, in the
ratio of less than two per cent, per year.

By such contrasts of mortality at United States stations,
and at rebel stations, argument and comment are struck
dumb.

There are still others, who are destined to fall

victims to what we are compelled by the evidence
to consider a carefully devised plan for the de
struction of Union soldiers, by weapons as surely, though
not so mercifully, fatal, as shot and shell and bayonet. We
refer to such, as, being broken down in mind and intellect,
and vitiated in bodily vigor, and diseased beyond hope of

124: MEDICAL KEPOKT.

recovery, by all the morbific causes which the rebel
authorities have arrayed against them during their im
prisonment; — and who being discharged from their coun
try's service for disability, — will, in weeks and months to
come, swell the local lists of mortality in the districts of
their own homes.

"W e have been much gratified to find, not only
Sturgeons, from the sworn testimony, but from private con
versation with a very large number of -our
returned prisoners, that the treatment and attention which
they received at the hands of the rebel surgeons was Idnd
and sympathizing ; their necessities were evidently as faith
fully ministered to, by these medical officers, (with one
exception only,) as the provision made by the authorities of
the rebel government would allow.

Kespectfully submitted,

ELLERSLIE WAIiLA€E.

July, 1864.

EVIDENCE

TAKEN BY THE COMMISSION.

ft

i

(125)

EVIDENCE

BELATUfG TO

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS

BY THE

(127)

EVIDENCE

OP

OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY*

Returned after Confinement in Rebel Prisons.

Testimony taken at Annapolis, Maryland, at United

States Army General Hospital, Division No. i,

May 3ist, A. D. 1864.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

DR. VALENTINE MOTT, DR. ELLERSLIE WALLACE,

DR. EDWARD DELAFIELD; HON. J. I. CLARK HARE,
Gouv. M. WILKINS, ESQ., EEV. TREADWELL WALDEN.

TESTIMONY OF PRIVATES AND NON-COM-
MISSIONED OFFICERS.

Private JOSEPH GRIDER, sworn and examined: —

I come from East Tennessee, near Knoxville ; enlisted in
the 3d East Tennessee infantry. I was taken prisoner near
home, betrayed by a citizen, 30th October, 1863. I was taken
to Atlanta, Georgia, and then taken to Richmond. I am fifty-
eight years of age ; my health was pretty good when I was

* The term "United States Army" is used here and elsewhere foi
convenience, and includes both the regular and volunteer service.

9 (129)

130 APPENDIX. ,

last captured. The first time I was balled and chained at
Macon, Georgia. I escaped from Macon, Georgia; was
taken as a spy; some papers found on me — recruiting
papers, "Was put in Libby Prison first, kept there about
three weeks, then was removed to Danville. I first escaped
August 31st, and afterwards was retaken. I then had my
uniform on as I had before when I was taken as a spy.
When I reached Eichmond my health was only tolerable
good, which was occasioned by the treatment I had pre
viously received. During while I was escaping I lived on
stolen corn and stolen pigs; I broiled the meat in the
mountains ; I was in Libby about three weeks ; was in
Danville over five months. Left Danville 16th of April to
come here.

In Libby my daily ration was corn bread — very rough.
It was not sieved — plenty of whole grains in it ; (witness
gives the measure, which amounts to about 31* cubic
inches). There were corn husks also in the bread as large
as rny two fingers. I kept a journal, but it was taken from
me ; it was in the haversack. Had meat sometimes, about
every other day, about two ounces. The bread weighed
from a half pound to three-quarters — for two men — as some
of our men weighed it. I could have eat up my rations
and my partner's and not had enough at that, when I was
well. It was just the diet that made me sick ; the bread
was not done half the time.

Everything was taken from me but my dress coat, shirt,
pants and boots ; slept on the floor ; walked many a night
to keep warm ; there were two hundred and fourteen men
in the room I staid in ; we laid close together, about a foot
apart.

Eations at Libby not the same as at Danville ; at Dan
ville we got black bread, which we drew until it gave out,
then we had corn bread. There were lots of men who
walked all night to keep warm. At Danville we got bigger

* Representing a fraction more than twelve ounces of raw corn meal.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY EEBELS. 131

of the black bread than common ; I threw it up, I couldn't
eat it. It is made of cane seed ; I never knew it to be eaten
before. I was in Danville about four weeks before the
diarrhoea came on me; I had lost flesh before and since
my capture. My healthy weight is from two hundred and
twelve to two hundred and fourteen pounds.

I went into the hospital when I had the diarrhoea ; there
got pea-soup and a slice of white bread, size of half my
hand. I found bugs in the soup, that was boiled out of the
peas. I was there twelve days before they gave me any
medicine, or told, me what was the matter with me.

My diarrhoea had stopped some time before I was ex
changed; I afterwards had the pleurisy. I have gained
flesh since I came here. They abuse the Tennesseans worse
than other prisoners. Our food was about the same.

They would not let you look out the windows. They
shot seven men for looking out ; one was shot on my floor ;
his name was Eobert McGill ; he got well ; he had just put
his hand out to throw out some water.

It was warm enough in the day-time when we were
stirring about. Sometimes we were allowed to go to the
privy and sometimes we were not. "We have been kept from
it so much as three days, until we fouled the floor — this
was for punishment for taking a little slat or such thing,
by those who were on the lower floor. I can eat two such
corn cakes as I got.

JOSEPH GEIDEE.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Private JACKSON 0. BROSHERS, sworn and examined: —

Age, twenty years ; height, six feet one inch ; ordinary
weight from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and
seventy-five pounds. I have weighed but one hundred and

132 APPENDIX.

sixty pounds ; improved for a while in weight in the army.
I enlisted from Spencer county, Indiana, in the 65th Indi
ana ; captured December 16th ; in prison at Belle Isle, and
at Pemberton buildings in Eichmond.

Was clad with great coat and blanket when taken. They
were taken from rne ; they gave me no blankets or covering.
I wore a jacket, shirt, drawers, &c., while in prison. The
prison was not a very good place to stay ; it was a tent ; I
staid in it at Belle Isle ; the rain came in ; suffered from the
cold ; it was cold weather ; had some little fire part of the
time ; I had a Sibley tent very much torn ; the fire was in
the centre.

I saw a good many men — over three hundred — without
shelter for some weeks ; I slept on an old coat I got from a
rebel ; no man ever said he was comfortable in prison ; our
men would sleep upon what they could get ; I have a chronic
diarrhoea ; had corn bread in prison ; before I came away
they gave us more ; I had enough for a while of such as
was given us ; no whole grains in my bread ; it was white
corn bread ; had pork once ; don't know how often I had
beef; don't think seven times ; was in Belle Isle about two
and a half months ; got a piece of meat about the size of my
two fingers. I judge it had worms in it by the holes I saw ;
before I came away, I got enough of such as it was, but at
first I did not.

I lost my strength I think for the want of food ; it was a
month and a half that we had no meat ; had not been sick
before I entered the army ; most of the men complained of
being hungry ; they appeared ravenous when the rations
were brought in.

I have gained strength since I have been here ; I have
the diarrhoea ; had it about two weeks before I came from
prison ; I think I lost my strength before the diarrhoea be
gan ; lost my flesh afterwards ; the worst of my weakness
was after the diarrhoea commenced ; could not have walked
three miles without resting before the diarrhoea came on.

I did not suffer from the want of air, but the want of

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 133

room ; I suffered from cold a great deal ; about fourteen to
fifteen men sleep in a Sibley tent in our army.

I got some crackers that they said came from the Sani
tary Commission, a cap, overcoat and canteen ; the other
men got some clothing, too, that they said came from the
Sanitary Commission.

My rations were somewhat less than this bible.*

JACKSON 0. BKOSHEES.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Corporal WILLIAM M. SMITH, sworn and examined: —

I am twenty -two years old ; from Kentucky ; enlisted in
the 8th Kentucky regiment September 24th, 1861 ; was
captured September 20th, 1863 ; taken to Eichmond, Vir
ginia ; was captured at the battle of Chattanooga.

I was put in Smith's building, after being some six days
at Belle Isle ; in Smith's building about two months.

Had on good clothes when taken in ; they took blankets
and oil cloth, extra shirt and drawers, &c., from me ; while
we were in Eichmond, there were some Sanitary clothes
sent there ; they were needed mighty bad ; the rebels have
taken a heap of Sanitary clothing, I think.

At Belle Isle, laid out on the naked ground ; it rained
some two days.

I took the small-pox in Danville ; I was then taken to the
hospital ; I wore the same clothing I had before I got it ; I
wore the same clothes when I came on here ; I believe I had
a shirt and my dress coat washed ; I washed my drawers
myself.

I came here the second of May.

My health was pretty good when taken prisoner ; when I

* Which being measured, contains 31£ cubic inches.

134 APPENDIX.

left I was taken out of the hospital ; I guess it was the
small-pox, erysipelas and diarrhoea which brought me down.
When I was in prison, before I was taken sick, got a piece
of corn bread about the size of this bible, (the same referred
to by the other witness ;) got meat three or four days in the
week; when sick, got a small piece of wheat bread — as
much as I could eat then — a piece of beef with it, about two
ounces ; sometimes a little beef soup, with red peas in it, and
rice ; we had coffee made out of rye — sometimes, once a day
— most every day ; I took the small-pox first ; I was there
about a week before I took it ; felt pretty well before ; did
not get enough to eat before ; hungry all the time.

WILLIAM M. SMITH.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Sergeant ALFRED P. JONES, sworn and examined: —

I am twenty-seven years of age; am from Worcester,
Massachusetts; I enlisted September 14th, 1861, in Boston,
in the 1st Massachusetts cavalry; was taken prisoner in
Virginia, at Aldie, June 17th, 1863 ; was taken to Libby
prison June 24th, 1863.

Was in prison two days and one night ; then* ta^en to
Belle Isle, and remained there some thirty days when I was
exchanged ; I was protected from the weather by a tent — it
was full of holes ; some were as well off and others were
not — some laid on the bare ground — some four hundred ; had
no blanket or overcoat when I went there.

I sold my India rubber cover to a rebel to buy bread with.

A good many who went to the prison when I did, had
their blankets taken from them ; the men said they wanted
the clothes for their own soldiers ; I used to see the rebel
officers dressed in our uniforms.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 135

Most of the men seemed to have coughs, and were very
weak.

The prisoners complained of a want of food ; it was a gene
ral complaint ; I walked the streets many a night ; I could
not sleep from hunger ; all complained.

At the time I was there in June and July, 1863, the food
was very fair, but in small quantities ; received one-fourth
of a loaf in the morning of wheat bread, which was three
inches by three and three -fourths, by one and three-fourths.
We had this twice a day ; about two small mouthfuls of
meat. ' For supper we had a half pint of bean soup ; don't
remember finding any worms in it ; there would be sand
or gravel in it; there was no deficiency in water. "We
were allowed to go out in squads to bathe. There were
squads let out to bathe and wash their clothes.

I had nothing to sleep on ; it was warm in the day time,
cool at night.

I heard many complain of cramp and pains. I lost
flesh and strength, and so did the others, from want of
food.

ALFRED P. JONES,

Sergeant Co. C., ist Massachusetts Cavalry.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.

United States Commissioner.-

Private WILLIAM D. FOOTE, sworn and examined: —

I was born in Canada, and enlisted in Buffalo, New York,
on 31st October, 1862, in the 9th New York Cavalry; I am
twenty-eight years of age ; have been in the army about
a year and eight months.

Was in the hands of the rebels about nine months ; was
at Belle Isle, and in the hospital at Eichmond ; was well
when I was captured ; I was taken with diarrhoea.

136 APPENDIX.

For iirst two or three months at Belle Isle the
quality of rations were very good; hardly sufficient to
sustain life in quantity. It was wheat bread, almost four
inches square, not exceeding half an inch in thickness, a
small portion of beef — call it two mouthfuls. "We had
this quantity of bread twice a day, and a small tin cupful of
bean soup, which had black bugs in it, which would float
on the top. We then got corn bread, about half the size
of this Bible, (the same one previously referred to,) twice
a day.

I was seven weeks I had no shelter at all; the latter
part of the time had a tent full of holes.

The latter part of October received blankets, &c., from
our Government ; my blankets and clothes had been taken
from me.

I lost flesh. Out of seven hundred that came to Belle
Isle with me, I think there were about two hundred got
shelter ; we were exposed to the weather.

There was no name for our hunger. When a bone
would be thrown away by some, it would be taken up
often by others, and boiled to get something out of it.

All who were there failed in strength and' flesh as I did,
from starvation, I think.

There were no sheds put up for us.

I should judge it was the corn bread which caused the
diarrhoea. It appeared to disagree with me, for when I
had wheat bread, I kept my health perfect. The corn
bread gave me pain in my bowels; often got whole grains
and husks in the bread, I am positive, as I am on my oath ;
the proportion would be small ; after that, we got rye and
corn mixed, of a better quality of bread.

WILLIAM D. FOOTE.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JK.

United States Commissioner.

TEEATMENT OF UNION PEISONEES BY REBELS. 137

Private EOBEKT MOEEISON, sworn and examined: —

I was enlisted from the northwest part of Ohio, in Pendle-
ton, Putnam county, Eiley township, in the 21st Ohio Yol-
unteers ; I was taken prisoner at Chattanooga, September
20th, 1863 ; I was removed to Kichmond ; was two or three
days on our way ; I was stout and healthy when I reached
Eichmond ; I forget the name of the prison into which I
was put — I remember, it w^as Pemberton ; I remained there
about a month, was then removed to Danville, Virginia,
remained there till I was brought here; was placed in
buildings at Danville.

Our blankets were taken from us ; our other clothing was
left to us : had no overcoat ; had no watch ; we saved our
money ; I put it in the sole of my boot ; they searched us
for it ; we had a stove — got wood once in awhile ; it was
not very comfortable.

My health was first-rate before I entered the service ; I
was in the army about nineteen months before I was cap
tured ; had no bowel complaint or any other sickness while
in our army ; when I went into the army my weight was
one hundred and twenty-five pounds.

I got a chunk of corn bread daily, the size of this Bible* ;
it satisfied me and more too, because I couldn't eat it;
sometimes it was but about half baked ; it was of a yellow
color ; it was of a musty taste ; had a very small ration of
meat about as large as three of my fingers in breadth, and
about two inches in thickness.

I was about two months in prison before I took sick ;
my first sickness was fever and ague ; I had not had it before
for some years; I have a little bowel complaint now, it
does not trouble me much ; I had the lung fever afterwards,
I got some eggs then ; when I got so as to be up and around
I was sent back to the prison ; I then took the diarrhoea ;
that came on in about three weeks after my return to
the prison; it reduced me down — was sent back to the

* The same before referred to.

138 APPENDIX.

hospital ; got wheat bread then, an egg, small piece of
meat, potatoes, salt meat, some soup not very good ; there
was rice in the soup ; was in a bed when I had the lung
fever ; I could go into corn bread pretty fast at first ; the
meat was pretty good — fresh meat ; I was there about six
months ; if the corn bread had been good with the meat, it
would have been plenty ; had not been in the habit of eat
ing corn bread ; it was kind of musty. In the corn bread
there were some grains of corn.

A hundred and fifty men in the room where I was.
In a warm evening the room was very close; we had
brooms to sweep the room ; the privy was handy ; the room
we were in was about sixty by sixty feet; we had as much
food as we wanted, such as it was.

There was about a foot between each man as we lay ; we
had a small yard we could walk around, about fifteen or
sixteen feet wide, by one hundred and fifty feet long ; I
think it was the corn bread and fresh meat that gave me
the bowel complaint ; I was not used to the corn bread.

I am twenty -three years of age.

EGBERT MORRISON.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 31, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JK.,

United States Commissioner.

TREATMENT OF UNION" PRISONERS BY REBELS. 139

Testimony taken at United States Army General

Hospital, Division No. 2, Annapolis,

Maryland, May jist, 1864.

ALL THE COMMISSIONERS PRESENT.

Private GEORGE DINGMAN, sworn and examined: —

I am fifty -four years of age ; I am from Michigan ; enlisted
in the 27th Eegiment in 1862 ; I had always good health
till captured ; was taken at Strawberry Plain ; taken to
Kichmond, thence to Belle Island about the 26th of January ,
had no shelter but the heavens ; was taken by some one
into a tent ; had the rheumatism.

No shelter was provided by the authorities ; some hun
dreds had no shelter, some had ; no fire ; had nothing to
sleep on but them blankets I brought ; had blankets when
taken prisoner.

(A ration produced) ; this was the rations I got ; some
times we got this twice and sometimes three times a day
(the ration weighs two ounces of bread and three-sixteenths
of an ounce of meat ; both are now perfectly dry which
causes a loss of weight) ; have had meat more than once a
day.

Was at Belle Isle two weeks ; think the prisoners got a
little more bread on the island than at the hospital ; my
ration was two inches in length by two and a half inches
wide, and about one inch thick, three times a day, or twice
a day sometimes ; suffered from hunger ; could not lay in
bed from rheumatism; when the hungry feeling came 1
got so weak I could not walk ; once and a while had a little
soup or beans raw ; no man could eat the soup unless he
was starving ; it tasted nasty and briny ; I could walk when
I came here, but had no strength.

140 APPENDIX.

I saw the rations the rebel guards got ; they were four
limes as much as ours : they got the same kind of bread
and meat, but they could help themselves out of the bag.

There were complaints ; the doctor was very kind, and
did all he could.

During January the men would run all night to keep
warm, and in the morning I would see men lying dead ;
from three to six or seven ; they were frozen ; this was
nearly every morning I was there ; the men would run to
keep warm, and then lie down and freeze to death ; we
made an estimate and found that seventeen men died a
night from starvation and cold, on an average.

If I were to sit here a week I couldn't tell you half our
suffering.

GEOKGE DINGMAN.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Private CHARLES H. ALLEN, sworn and examined: —

My home is in New York ; enlisted in the 16th New York
Eegiment last fourth of July ; was sickly then ; don't know
when I was captured ; it was in Virginia ; was taken to
Belle Isle.

They took my clothes away; my extra clothing, my
overcoat and blanket; it was at the end of the winter;
slept on the ground ; remained about two months without
shelter, then went to the hospital.

It was cold ; suffered a great deal with cold ; some froze
to death ; I only saw dead men once.

We got corn bread and sometimes soup ; . corn bread
twice a day ; meat three or four times a week ; I got a
quarter of a loaf of corn bread for each ration about as wide
as my four fingers, and about four fingers thick.

I was hungry, pretty nearly starved to death all the time.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 141

Kations not as good at the hospital ; not so large.

Had a frozen foot and diarrhoea when I went to the
hospital ; think it was the beans and water which gave me
the diarrhoea ; I relished the bread at first, then I lost my
relish for it ; was in Belle Isle about three months ; from
the last of the winter.

Was in Belle Isle two months before I froze my feet ; I
heard that a good many more were frozen to death ; about
sixty I suppose ; I did not go round the tents, and there
fore did not see them ; I have lost the end of my little toe,
(Witness exhibits his frozen toe to the Commission.)

his

CHAS. H. M ALLEN.

mark.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Private FRANK EICHELBERGER, sworn and examined: —

I am from Baltimore ; enlisted August, 1861, in the 8th
Kansas, Company A ; captured at Chattanooga ; health
good up to that time ; taken to Eichmond and placed in a
tobacco warehouse ; I am twenty-two years of age ; got to
Eichmond 21st of October ; went into prison in December,
and remained till March.

They took our blankets and coats away from us ; laid
on planks; on the floor; it was warm when we were
crowded.

Got corn bread, rice, sweet potatoes ; meat once a week ;
got rice and sweet potatoes every other day ; corn bread
three inches square, one and a half inches thick, twice a
day : teacupful of rice ; sometimes soup, two-thirds of a
pint ; we got soup about as often as we got meat.

It did not satisfy hunger ; my appetite was never satis
fied ; my health declined rapidly.

I got a heavy cold ; and then went to the hospital, when

142 APPENDIX.

I had the pneumonia ; the condition of the other men was
about the same with regard to their food and accommoda
tions ; they complained of their treatment while at the hos
pital; got dried apples and coffee sent to us from the
North.

I had no pain when I suffered from hunger ; could not
sleep on account of hunger; did not suffer from cold a
great deal ; the loaf shown to me is just like what we got ;
about one-third of it (loaf weighs fifteen ounces, and meas
ured about thirty-one and a half cubic inches,) twice a
day.

The rebel guards got the same kind of bread ; a great
deal more : enough to satisfy any man's hunger ; sometimes
their bread was better than this ; the bread was made of
corn meal not sifted ; no grains or cob in it that I saw ; I
believe some of our men did complain ; haven't heard any
reason why we were not better fed.

FRANK EICHELBERGER.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BKOWN, JK.,

United States Commissioner.

Private DANIEL McMANN, sworn and examined: —

I am from New York ; enlisted in the 43d New York ;
captured at Gettysburg ; was sickly when captured ; taken
to Richmond ; placed in Belle Isle.

Took my coat and blanket away ; gave us no covering ;
some laid out on a bank ; reached Belle Isle in July ; a
number of men had to lie out on the bare ground — two
hundred ; I was there till after Christmas.

I suffered from cold very much, and so did the men
more than I ; we had cold rain storms ; some men froze to
death in a ditch.

It was not much better in the tents ; I saw men carried

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 143

out of the tents in blankets, dead ; saw this more than
once ; I suppose they died mostly from hunger and cold.

We got about one-third the loaf shown, of corn bread (loaf
weighed, and weighs fifteen ounces) twice a day ; sometimes
but once ; meat once regularly ; a small piece about as big
as my four fingers together.

Went into the hospital after Christmas, and remained
till last of March ; rations worse in hospital ; as much
bread, meat and soup given to us the same day at the hos
pital ; they were bad and we could not eat them ; a hungry
man could not eat the meat and soup ; there is but one man
here who was in the ward with me at the hospital.

Suffered from hunger at Belle Isle; heard others com
plain ; had the measles and a touch of the diarrhoea ; my
strength did not keep up till I got the diarrhoea ; when I
would go down to the river to get a drink, I could hardly
stand or get back ; river about fifty yards off.

My guards were not hungry, for they would sometimes
throw bread in to the prisoners ; have picked it up myself ;
it was better bread than ours ; not so coarse.

I saw a man kill a dog and eat part of it, and he sold the
rest of it ; I got some.

his

DANIEL M McMANN.

mark.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Private WALTER S. SMITH, sworn and examined: —

Am from New York ; enlisted August 27th, 1861, in the
48th New York; captured at Morris Island, July 18th;
taken to Columbia, S. C. ; never had any blanket ; rations
were corn bread — enough — small piece of meat and rice ;
done very well there; from there taken to Kichmond —
Libby Prison.'

APPENDIX.

Was put on Belle Isle in two days after; tents torn,
holes in them ; about half of our men slept outside — fifty ;
it rained through the tents.

Some laid out in the snow and frost; I laid on the
ground; the men that laid out, some had blankets and
some had none ; some froze to death ; many had their feet
frozen ; all that slept out suffered from cold ; some in tents
suffered from cold.

I saw men that had frozen to death in the night ; I saw
this seven or eight times.

"We* had wheat bread when we first went there ; about
eight inches by four and a-half, by an inch and a half or
more thick ; meat ration four or five times a week, as big
as my three fingers, each time, for three or four months ;
after that got none, except once in a while ; I had a chronic
diarrhoea; kept my strength pretty well till then; lost
flesh before.

The corn bread was very poor — ground with cob; on
the days they gave us meat, they gave us less bread ; when
we had meat, the bread ration was about one-half the size
of the loaf produced here, (same as before referred to,
weighing fifteen ounceif) ; we got half of this loaf (for the
whole day) when we got meat ; two-thirds when we had no
meat ; we never got as much as the whole loaf; when we
came away, they gave us rations to last through the day —
one loaf; we got soup four or five times a week at first;
soup and meat same day ; latter part of time, scarce any
soup.

The guards fared better; they got meat when we did
not ; they got a third more bread ; our rations not sufficient
to keep down hunger ; suffered the last three months ; had
the diarrhoea twice ; got it the last time, three or four days
before I came away; the men suffered very much who
had been on the island for some time ; felt no pain when
hungry; never kept from sleeping from hunger; left Belle
Isle, 17th of March; think thirty or forty died while I
was there.

TEEATMEKT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 145

I have heard the men running round the tents to keep
warm at all hours of the night ; the river was frozen a little
while I was there ; the current is rapid.

The water would freeze two or three inches in the bucket
at night ; the main street of the camp would be very much
tilled with men lying there.

From the general talk from the men in the camp, I think
that the statement, that seventeen men would die on an
average a night, is likely to be correct.

WALTER S. SMITH.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Testimony taken at United States Army General

Hospital, Division No. i, Annapolis,

Maryland, June ist, 1864.

ALL THE COMMISSIONERS PRESENT.

Private WM. W. WILCOX, of Cleveland, Ohio, sworn and
examined: —

I enlisted August, 1862, in the 124th Ohio Volunteers.

Taken prisoner at the battle of Chickamauga, Ga., Sep
tember, 1863; taken to Tunnel Hill, Ga.; was in good
health at the time of capture; thence to Richmond, Va.;
placed on Belle Isle.

They took everything except the natural clothing, even
to knife, on body ; no blankets given us ; I hid my money
and they did not get that.

146 APPENDIX,

No shelter provided; slept on bare ground ; no covering
in the least ; was put on the Isle the last day of September,
or first of October; staid there eleven days; men came
when I did ; had no shelter ; were turned into an enclosure
in which there was no shelter; I suppose there were two
thousand without shelter.

Removed to the city of Richmond ; we were all removed
there ; placed in Smith's tobacco factory ; no covering nor
bed until the blankets were sent to us by the United States ;
received the blankets about the 1st of December.

Removed to Danville, and placed in tobacco warehouse ;
windows broken out; miserable cold place; we took the
blankets with us from Richmond ; so cold, we suffered ;
no means to keep warm, except by walking around ; the
cold prevented sleeping to a great extent ; a man could not
sleep alone comfortable with one blanket.

There was a great deal of stealing of blankets by the
guards ; the men traded their blankets for rice ; the guards
would bring rice to the window, from fifteen to twenty
pounds, and offer to exchange for our blankets ; they
would come to the windows and say, " stick your blanket
out so I can get hold of the end of it;" then two or more of
the guards would jerk the blanket away and not give the
rice ; this was not a general thing, though it was often
done ; the motive of the men for doing this, was, they were
so near starved out that they were ready to take anything ;
the guard would pass in bags of sand in place of rice and
take blankets.

"When we first came there, our bread was made from
middlings, shorts and bran, such as we feed our cattle ; it
was a combination of most everything, corn-hulls, bran,
and refuse flour ; got about half pound ; the bulk was only
one-quarter larger than the loaf shown, but was lighter
than this ; I should say from two to three ounces lighter.

Our beef, when we first went there, would range from
four to six ounces a day.

Our soup was made from sweet potatoes; about half pint

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 147

in quantity, and the liquor the beef was boiled in ; some
days we would not get any soup ; the soup was hardly
palatable.

There was a difference in our rations; we drew this
black bread for about a week, then drew corn bread ; the
corn bread was about the size for a ration as the loaf
shown here ; I should judge our rations were heavier than
that loaf, about two to three ounces, (loaf weighs now
twelve ounces and a fraction).

In every ration there was cobs, whole corn, as hard as on
the cobs, sometimes husks as long as my finger ; the loaf
was sweet when we first got it; not sufficient to satisfy
hunger.

The way it affected me was to make me so weak I would
become blind ; if I'd get up to move as far as across this
room, I would become blind and everything would get
dark, and I would fall from weakness ; my strength kept
declining all the time before I got the diarrhoea ; did not
have much diarrhoea until the first of March.

I was removed to the hospital about the middle of
December, from Danville ; I had no disease I know of but
weakness, swelling of the legs, with purple and inflamed
and yellow spots ; the skin cracked and water ran out of
my legs ; rations better at the hospital, when I first went
there, than they were in prison ; we were allowed no privi
lege at all in prison.

After we tunneled out, we were only allowed to go to
the privy six at a time ; the floor was in one mess — filthy ;
an ordinary one-horse wagon-load of human excrement on
the floor every morning.

Not allowed to look out the window ; was shot at twice
for looking out; a man was shot alongside of me, while
standing at the window; he was standing two feet from the
window, with his hand on the casement; the sentry could
not see him from the sentry's beat ; I presume the sentry
saw bis shadow; he stepped out of his position to shoot at
him, perhaps twenty to twenty-five feet ; the sentry shot

14:8 APPE:NTDIX.

liim in the head and killed him instantly; I suppcise 1 h^ro
seen five hundred men shot at ; our order* were not to put
our heads out the windows ; this man had not put his head
out at that time; he had rolled up his blanket and was
standing over the place where he slept on the floor; his
name was Alexander Opes, of the 101st Indiana.

With one exception, we were treated very well by the
physicians ; never heard any fault found of any physician
but Dr. Moses, of Charlestown ; don't know his first name ;
when once we had mouldy bread given to us in the hospi
tal, Dr. Fontleroy made a fuss about it and had it changed.

WM. W. WILCOX.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Private WILLIAM D. FOOTE, recalled: —

The first case of death I remember, was a Massachusetts
man, who died from frozen feet ; from the looks of them
you could hardly tell they were feet ; he laid in the next
bed to me ; they first took off the toes of one of the feet,
and then took off the foot ; in a few days he died from
amputation ; he was in the same ward ; brought in the
middle of November. Saw nor man frozen to death on
Belle Isle ; saw any number of men brought in with frozen
feet, who afterwards suffered amputation; ten or twelve
persons were so brought in ; two or three of the amputated
cases died. I speak of what occurred in my ward.

WILLIAM D. FOOTE.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Private HIRAM J. NEAL, sworn and examined: —

I am. from Maine ; enlisted in the 4th Maine Eegiment ;

TREATMENT OF UNION" PRISONERS BY REBELS. 1-1

taken prisoner at Bristow Station, in October, 1863 ; taken
to the Pemberton prison, from there to Belle Island, which
I reached 24th February ; remained until January 18th ,
blankets taken from me ; nothing given in their place ;
after eight days, we had tents at Belle Island.

At first the men had to lay out till they could find
tents ; had nothing to sleep upon.

About one-fifth of the men were permitted by the rebels
to retain their blankets ; had no straw or board to lie on ;
tents old and rotten — full of holes; those in the tents
managed to keep warm, though they couldn't sleep ; those
out of the tents, from three to six hundred, tried to run
about to keep warm.

Saw many with frozen feet carried off; in one morning
saw eleven corpses, three frozen stiff. Near first of Janu
ary, deaths occurred eight or ten in twenty-four hours,
principally in the night ; I deem the causes of those deaths
to have been exposure and starvation.

When I left, January 18th, there were about five thou
sand men there ; I was transferred to the hospital for diar
rhoea and disability.

Eations not sufficient to satisfy hunger ; waked up one
night and found myself knawing my coat sleeve ; used to
dream of having something good to eat.

I had a pain in my chest and bowels ; had the diarrhoea
when I was captured ; had a pain in my bowels then ; had
about four movements of the bowels a day before cap
tured ; not able to do duty all the time ; I had been thirty-
six hours on the march with one night's rest just before I
was captured ; was in the fight about an hour.

HIEAM J. NEAL.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Private CHARLES F. PFOUNSTIEL, sworn and examined: —
I am a German; enlisted in 2d Maryland, September

1 50 APPENDIX.

24, 1862 ; captured in Tennessee ; imprisoned in Belle Is
land ; reached there January 21st; remained till 6th of
March.

They took my blankets, sixty dollars in money, and a
watch worth thirty dollars.

For two days had no shelter ; then I got in the tents ; air
came in on every side ; many men without tents ; two hun
dred men went in with me ; the greater part had no tents ;
some had a blanket or old coat.

Some froze to death ; could not keep warm ; one out of
my regiment froze to death ; he reported to the doctor that
he was sick but he paid him no attention, perhaps because
the man could not speak English.

Every morning we carried out some men froze to death,
and from starvation some four or five men.

We did not get enough to eat ; ten or twelve ounces of
corn bread and two spoons of beans almost rotten ; some
times we had soup — not fit to eat, yet had to eat it ; had
meat only three or four times while I was there ; two or
three ounces each time ; I was hungry all the time.

I could not sleep for hunger and cold, dirt and lice ; I
washed twice a day in the James river ; strength kept up
till last eight days ; then I felt sick in my bowels ; had no
diarrhoea ; did not go to the hospital ; left with the 9th
Maryland.

I saw a good many cases carried in a blanket to the doc
tor, and when they got there many of them were dead ; had
my feet frozen.

There might be many deaths I did not see ; I have rea
son to believe there was. I have stated what I saw — three
or four a night.

The men would dig holes in the ground to lie in at night
to protect them from the air.

CHAS. F. PFOUJSTSTIEL.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 151

TESTIMONY OF COMMISSIONED AND
MEDICAL OFFICERS.

Captain A. R. CALHOUN, sworn and examined : —

I am from Kentucky ; was not mustered in at the time
of capture ; was captured at North Eastern Georgia ; was
taken to Libby Prison ; captured in October, 1863, and
reached Libby in November.

We were taken from Atlanta in open box cars, without
shelter ; we lay on the floor, wounded men and all ; men
with the diarrhoea had no accommodations, and had to per
form the operations of nature in the cars ; all packed close
ly ; there were about fifty wounded ; some amputations.

Just before we left Atlanta, one of our men with diarrhoea
went to the- back house, which was beyond the line our
prisoners were allowed to go ; there was a bunch of dried
leaves at the corner of the back house; they could not
have been a foot beyond the line, and when the man went
to pick them up, the guard fired and killed him.

On entering Libby it was thirty-six hours before we had
any rations given us, and would have suffered, if the offi
cers already there had not shared with us; I mean our
officers.

We were packed in a room of one hundred and forty
feet long by forty-five feet wide, and already occupied by
nearly three hundred men.

We had no clothing or bedding given to us; there were
eleven men of us ; what we had was taken from us by our
captors ; it was very cold*; the windows were broken at
each end of the room ; our comrades also shared theii
blankets and continued to do so until we were supplied by
blankets from the Sanitary Committee ; even then they
would not average over a blanket to a man, in my room.

152 APPENDIX.

It was so filth}7" that our clothing and blankets soo a be
came covered with vermin ; the floors of the prison were
washed late in the afternoon nearly every day, so that
when we came to lie down it was very damp ; we had
nothing but our clothing and blanket to lie on ; the result
was that nearly every man had a cough.

We were wormed and dove-tailed together like fish in a
basket ; in this room was the sink and privy ; we did our
washing and dried our clothes in the same room ; two stoves
in the room, one at each end, and two or three armful s
of wood for each per day.

We were not allowed to go within three feet of the win
dows to look out ; but men could not help this, and wero
repeatedly fired upon ; in this firing they wounded four
officers ; there was hardly a day passed without firing ; any
one who hung clothes near or on the windows, had the
clothes confiscated and were put in the cells.

Twice each day the men were crowded into two rooms
for roll call; in this room were the sick and weak who
could hardly stand ; the crowd was immense ; our men
were counted out one by one ; the officers — there were one
thousand officers ; any one not attending this roll call was
compelled to stand in ranks four hours on the floor.

When I first entered Libby in November, we received a
small loaf of corn bread, about two ounces of poor beef
and a little boiled rice each day ; the loaf was about an
inch and a half longer, thicker and heavier than this."*
The crust was very thick ; we used to call it iron-clad,
and grate it and make mush out of it, as the most palat
able way ; we could not grate the crusts.

After November we received about two ounces of beef
once in four weeks on an average ; from the 25th of March
till the 6th of May not a bit of meat was issued in officers'
quarters.

* The same loaf before referred to.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 153

For the three months of February, March, and April,
there was a pint of black peas issued to each man every
week, and a little vinegar ; these peas were full of bugs,
nearly every ration ; they call them bugs, but they were
little white maggots in a chrysalis state ; we pounded the
peas so as to mash them, and let the bugs flow to the sur
face ; there was about an ounce of soap and a little salt
given each man.

This was inadequate to satisfy hunger, and for two
months I have had a burning sensation, when in prison, in
my intestines. I used to dream of food, and foolishly
would blame myself for not having eaten more when at
home ; the subject of food engrossed my entire thoughts ;
not all suffered as I did ; the majority did ; some were
fortunate enough to receive boxes from home.

We were allowed to write letters once each week, not to
exceed six lines.

Boxes sent us from the North were stored in a warehouse
near the prison ; we could see them in the windows ; the
contents of the boxes were being stolen or ruined by keep
ing, and when issued I think would have been eaten by
none but starving men ; every package and can was broken
open, and the contents were poured promiscuously into a
blanket, so that everything ran in together ; they stole a
great many of our boxes ; one of the guards told me that
they saw our men escaping through the tunnel, and that
they did not prevent them, supposing it was their own men
stealing our boxes ; the Sanitary supply sent us, we re
ceived but little of; we were allowed to send out and buy
at extravagant prices ; they sold us the Sanitary hams,
butter, and stationary. Marks of the Sanitary Commission
were on the cases and on the paper.

For trivial offences, officers were sent to the cells ; there
had been about eighty-five men in ; many of those men
were innocent that were placed there as hostages; they
said the cells were damp, walls green, no stoves ; they were
about twelve feet bv twenty ; -at one time there were six-

154: APPENDIX.

teen men in those cells ; some had to stand all night ; I
believe this fully. I was in the hospital with pneumonia.

Just before I left, Capt. Stevens received a small box
from home, sat down and ate to excess, as any man would
under the circumstances, and died a few hours afterwards.

The surgeon was very kind to us. The hospital food
was just like the quarter food, with the exception of a
little rye coffee and sugar ; not quite so much bread.

I had a burning sensation on the inside, with a general
failing in strength. A man had a piece of ham which I
looked at for hours.

When I came away on the 16th of Hay, and saw the
pale faces of the men through the bars, I cried. They
begged me for God's sake to appeal to the Government and
write to the papers — to do anything in the world to get
them relieved. I am confident that if they remain long in
that situation, they will never be fit for anything. . The
men never blame our Government for their* suffering.

I know the Eebels have plenty, for we went down into
the cellar, and brought up corn meal, flour, potatoes and
turnips, which we divided with our fellows ; the flour was
excellent ; I ate about a quart of it. I am a communicant
in the church, and was studying for the ministry when tlie
war broke out. I am a member of the Reformed Church.

A. E. CALHOUN.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

I certify that the foregoing testimony was taken and ro-
duced to writing in the presence of the respective wit
nesses, and by them sworn to in my presence, at the times,
places, and in the manner set forth.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 155

Testimony by Letter of Lieutenant-Colonel Earns-
worth, ist Connecticut Cavalry.

NORWICH, June 29/A, 1864.

GENTLEMEN : — In reply to a letter from one of your
Committee, I have the honor to make the following state
ment of what I saw, heard and felt of the treatment of
prisoners of war by the Confederate authorities at Eich-
mond, Virginia :

I entered service October, 1861 ; was captured on the 14th
of July, 1863, in a cavalry skirmish near Halltown, Ya. ;
was conveyed to Richmond, and confined in Libby Prison ;
was paroled and sent North on the 14th of March, 1864.

My treatment by my immediate captors was gentlemanly
in the extreme; even going so far as to assist me in con-
coaling money, so as to prevent the Eichmond authorities
from robbing me.

Upon reaching the Libby, we were rigidly searched,
and all moneys and attractive jack-knives, nice overcoats
and meerschaum pipes were kindly appropriated by the
prison authorities ; rubber blankets, canteens, spurs and
haversacks were taken from us. Lieut. Moran, for com
plaining of this treatment, was knocked down by Eichard
Turner, inspector of the prison clothing.

There was never an issue of clothing or blankets made
by the Confederate authorities during the time I was there
confined. We did receive one hundred (100) each of tin
plates, cups, knives, forks, (mostly damaged by bayonet-
thrusts, they having been picked up from battle-fields,) for
the use of one thousand (1000) officers.

ACCOMMODATIONS — In six (6) rooms, one hundred by
forty, there were confined as many as twelve hundred (1200/

15G APPENDIX.

officers of all ranks, from Brigadier-General to Second
Lieutenant. This space was all that was allowed us in
which to cook, eat, wash, sleep and exercise. You can see
that soldierly muscle must fast deteriorate when confined
to twenty (20) superficial feet of plank ; we were not
allowed benches, chairs or stools, nor even to fold our
blankets and sit upon them ; but were forced to sit like so
many slaves upon the middle passage.

This continued until the appointment of General Butler,
Commissioner of Exchange, after which time we were
allowed chairs and. stools, which we made from the boxes
and barrels sent us from the North.

There was plenty of water allowed us, and a tank for
bathing in four (4) of the rooms.

There were seventy-six (76) windows in the six (6) rooms,
from which in winter there was no protection.

SUBSISTENCE. — Our rations consisted of one-quarter (J)
of a pound of beef, nine (9) ounces of bread of variable
quality, generally of wheat flour, though sometimes of
wheat flour and corn meal, a gill of rice, and a modicum
of salt and vinegar per day. This continued until the llth
of November, which was the first day that meat was not
issued, and bread made entirely of corn meal was substi
tuted for wheat bread ; this meal was composed of cob and
grain ground together, and when mixed with, cold water,
without salt or any raising, made the bread. Meat was
next issued on the 14th, and the issue suspended on the
21st. On the 26th we received salt pork, sent to the pris
oners by the United States Government ; from this time
out, meat was like angels' visits ; sometimes it was issued
at intervals of ten days, and sometimes not in thirty (30) ;
the longest interval was thirty-four (34) days.

The amount of rations first issued will undoubtedly
sustain life ; but their long continuance without exercise
will produce disease of a scorbutic nature.

The rations issued after the llth of November will not

TREATMENT cff UXIOX PRISONERS BY REBELS. 157

sustain life, and without the aid sent to us from the North
the mortality would have been great. Nine ounces of such
corn bread and a cup of water per day, are poorer rations
than those issued to the vilest criminal in the meanest
States Prison in the Union; yet this was considered fit
treatment by the hospitable chivalry of the South to be ex
tended to men taken in honorable warfare, any one of them
the peer of the arch-traitor, Jeff. Davis.

BOXES. — We began to receive boxes in October. These
came in good order, were inspected in our presence, and
delivered to us entire ; they came regularly, and were
delivered in good order up to about the 1st of January ;
after this time boxes were sent regularly from the North,
and were received by Col. Ould, Commissioner of Exchange,
but they were not issued to us; they were stored in a
building within sight of the prison, and at the time of my
leaving, three thousand (3,000) had been received there
and not delivered to us ; what was the cause of this non
delivery of boxes we were never informed. They keep up
a semblance of delivery, however, by the issue of five (5)
or six (6) a week, they receiving from the North about
three hundred (300) a week.

The contents of these boxes were, undoubtedly, appro
priated to the private use of the officials in and about
Eichmond. Here is simply one instance : Lieut. Maginnis,
of the 18th Reg., Conn., since killed in battle, recognized
a suit of citizen's clothes which had been sent to him from
the North, on the person of one of the prison officials, and
accused him of the theft, and showed his name on the
watch-pocket of the pants. Such cases were numerous.

BELLE ISLE. — Upon the 26th day of January, 1861, I
visited Belle Island, as an assistant in the distribution of
clothing sent by the Government and by the Sanitary
Commissions of the North ; this was my first time outside
of the prison walls in six months. The island is situated
j'lft opposite the Tredegar Iron Works, in the James river.

153 APPENDIX.

The space occupied by prisoners is about six acres, enclosed
by an earth- work three (3) feet in height ; within this space
were confined as many as ten thousand (10,000) prisoners.
The part occupied by the prisoners is a low, sandy, barren
waste, exposed in summer to a burning sun, without the
shadow of a single tree ; and, in winter, to the damp and
cold winds up the river, with a few miserable tents, in
which, perhaps, one-half (J) the number were protected
from the night fogs of a malarious region ; the others lay
upon the ground in the open air. One of them said to me :
" W e lay in rows, like hogs in winter, and take turns who
has the outside of the row."

In the morning, the row of the previous night was
plainly marked by the bodies of those who were sleeping
on in their last sleep.

Fed upon corn bread and water, scantily clothed, with
but few blankets, our patriotic soldiers here suffered the
severest misfortunes of this war. Here, by hundreds, they
offered up their lives in their country's cause, victims of
disease, starvation and exposure, — sufferings a thousand
times more dreadful than the wounds of the battle-field.
As many as fourteen (14) have been known to freeze to
death in one night. This I have from men of my own
regiment, and it is perfectly reliable.

The hospitals upon the island are Sibley tents, without
floors, the ground covered with straw, and logs of wood
placed around for pillows, to which, when about to die, the
men were carried ; and here, with logs for their pillows, the
hard, cold ground for their bed, death came to their relief,
and the grave closed over the victims of rebel barbarity.

The officer in charge of the island was well spoken of
by the men. He deprecated the condition they were in,
but said he could do no more, for the authorities gave him
no more to do with ; and yet it is a fact that the men were
stimulated to work at their trades, as blacksmiths, &cv for
the benefit of the Confederate Government, by the offer of
double the quantity of rations they were then receiving ;

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 159

tli us acting out, in their treatment of Northern soldiers, the
great principle of Slavery and of the South, that the lives
of the poor and helpless are in their eyes of no more value
than the amount of interest they will produce on capital.

The facilities for washing were good, a sandy beach all
around the island, and the whole number of prisoners could
have washed in the course of the day; but, under the
management of the authorities, only a limited number (say
75 men per day) were able to wash, being conducted under
guard to the water, in squads of five (5) or six (6).

The sickness caused by the above treatment was of the
respiratory organs, pneumonia, &c., and chronic diarrhoea.

Men were without medical treatment on the island until
disease was so far advanced that when taken away in
ambulances to the hospital, in squads of twenty (20), one-
half (J) of them have died within five (5) hours — some of
them while their names were being taken at the hospital.

Men were returned from the hospital to the island when
so weak that they have been obliged to crawl upon their
hands and knees a part of the way.

On the 20th -of November, 1863, a squad were passing the
prison (Libby) in this condition,, going from the hospital to
the island ; among them was George Ward, a schoolmate of
mine and of Col. Ely, of the 18th Conn. Yols. Col. Ely
threw a ham to him from the window. As the poor fellow
crawled to get it, the rebel guard charged bayonets on him,
called him a damned Yankee, and appropriated the ham.

The bodies of the dead were placed in the cellar of the
prison, to which there was free access for animals from the
street. I have known of bodies being partially devoured
by dogs, and hogs, and rats, during the night. Every
morning the bodies were placed in rude coffins and taken
away for burial. Officers have marked the coffins thus
taken away, and have seen them returned twenty (20) times
for bodies. You may draw your own inference as to the
rites of burial extended to a Yankee prisoner in the Capital
of the Southern Confederacy.

1GO APPENDIX.

Officers dying, their brother officers procured metallic
coffins and a vault, in which they were placed until they
could be removed North. An officer, (Major Morris, of
the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, I think,) who had in the
hands of the Confederate authorities several hundred dollars,
taken from him when he entered the prison, died in the
hospital, and the authorities refused to use his money for
a decent burial, and we raised it in the prison.

LIBBY MINED. — Upon the approach of Kilpatrick on his
grand raid on Richmond, about the 1st March, the greatest
consternation was produced among the inhabitants. The
authorities felt sure of his ability to enter the city and free
the prisoners.

We were informed one morning by the negroes who
labor around the prison, that during the night they had
been engaged in excavating a large hole under the centre of
the building, and that a quantity of powder had been placed
therein. Upon inquiring of certain of the guards, we found
it the general impression among them that the prison was
mined.

Richard Turner, inspector of the prison, told officers there
confined, that "should Kilpatrick succeed in entering Rich
mond, it would not help us, as the prison authorities would
blow up the prison and all its inmates."

The adjutant of the prison, Lieutenant Latouche, was
heard by an officer (Lieutenant Jones, 55th Ohio,) to use
the following words to a rebel officer with whom he had
entered and examined the cellar where the powder was re
ported as placed: "There is enough there to send every
damned Yankee to hell."

Major Turner said in my presence the day we were
paroled, in answer to the question, "Was the prison
mined?" "Yes, and I would have blown you all to Hades
before I would have suffered you to be rescued,"

Bishop Johns said in the prison, when asked if he thought
it was a Christian mode, of warfare to blow up defenceless

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 161

prisoners : " He supposed the authorities were satisfied on
that point, though he did not mean to justify it."
I am very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

CHAS. FARNSWORTH.

Late Lieutenant-Colonel ist Connecticut Cavalry.

NORWICH, June 30^, 1864.

STATE OF CONNECTICUT, j
County of New London, j ss

Personally appeared CHARLES FARNS-
WORTH, signer of the foregoing in
strument and statement, and made
solemn oath that the facts stated
therein are true, before me.

DAVID YOUNG,

Justice of the Peace.

Additional Testimony by Letter of Lieutenant-
Colonel Farnsworth.

NORWICH, CONN., July 16th, 1864.
Rev. TREADWELL WALDEN,

Philadelphia :

SIR : — Your favor of the 14th inst. received. In answer
to your request for a written statement of facts, related to
you by myself in conversation, in regard to the conduct of
the guards at Richmond, Virginia, and the provision made
for the sick upon Belle Isle, I submit the following :

In what is known as the " Pemberton buildings," nearly
opposite the " Libby," there were confined a large number
of enlisted men. Hardly a day went by that the guards did
not fire upon the prisoners. I have known as many as

162 APPENDIX.

fourteen shots to be fired in one day. They were thus sub
ject to death if they merely came near the window to obtain
fresh air. It was a very common occurrence to hear the
report of a musket and then see the sergeant of the guard
bring out a wounded or dead soldier.

The guards would watch for an opportunity to fire upon
their prisoners, and, without warning the prisoner to leave
the vicinity of the wiodow, fire.

Lieutenant Hammond, of the Einggold cavalry, (better
known to Libbians as " Old Imboden,") was at the sink, which
is constructed upon the outside of the building. From the
upper part of the sides, boards are removed for the purpose
of light or ventilation. The guard below caught sight of
Lieutenant Hammond's hat, through this opening, and fired.
The ball entered the side, far below the opening, showing
that the guard was intent upon striking his man ; but a nail
gave the bullet an upward turn and it passed through Ham
mond's ear and hat-brim. From the position he was in,
there is little doubt that but for the ball striking the nail
he would have been struck in the breast.

The attention of Major Turner was called to it, but he
only laughed and said, " The boys were in want of practice."
The guard, when spoken to about it, said, " He had made a
bet he would kill a damned Yankee before he came off
guard." There was not the least attention paid by the com
mander of Libby prison to this deliberate attempt at murder.

Lieutenant Thos. Huggins, of a New York regiment, was
standing at least eight feet from a window on the second
floor ; the guard could just see the top of his hat To be
sure of his man, the guard left his beat and stepped into the
street. Being seen, a warning cry was uttered, and Huggins
stooped and the bullet buried itself in the beams above.
This was the same guard that fired at Hammond.

Richard, or as usually called, Dick Turner was the in
spector of the prison, and acted under the orders of the
commander. There was nothing too mean for him to do.
He searched you when you entered, knocked you down if

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 163

you grumbled, took your blanket from you if found lying
upon it after morning roll-call, never spoke of you except
as damned Yankees — told you "you were better treated than
you deserved."

This "high-toned Southron" was employed as the negro-
whipper of the prison.

Colonel Powell, 2d Virginia cavalry, (Union,) Colonel
Streight and Captain Eeed, 51st Indiana, and others who
had been confined in the cells, used to witness the whippings,
(the cells were at one end of the cellar where the whipping-
block was,) and they could hear, — even if they shut their
6} es to the horrid exhibition.

Colonels Powell and Streight told me of as many as six
negro women having been stripped and whipped, at one
time, for having passed bread to our soldiers as they
marched through the street.

The flogging of the negroes that worked at the Libby
was an every-day occurrence.

These blacks were free negroes from the North, who were
employed as servants, but fell into the hands of the enemy.
He flogged one of them so severely that he was unable to
move for two weeks, and walked lame months after. His
offence was resisting a white negro-driver.

The hospital tents on Belle Isle were old Sibleys. These
were not temporary hospitals, for many died in them each
day ; but when they could not contain all the sick some
sick were removed to Eichmond hospitals. These tents
were awful places for human beings to be placed in — with
out floors, a heap of straw for a bed, logs of wood for pil
lows— ^men died with less attention than many a man pays
to a favorite dog. The hospitals in Kichmond were much
bolter, being in buildings, and were furnished with bunks
and straw beds — some of them with sheets. But though
treated with kindness, compared with Belle Island, the
want of proper medicines was visible, and many died for
the want of the most simple remedies.

Upon the 25th of October, 1863, two officers, (Major

161 APPENDIX.

Hewsten, 132d New York, and a Lieutenant 4th New
York Cavalry,) escaped from the hospital. Immediately,
upon its being known, all the sick who were well enough
to sit up or stand, were removed from the room and
placed in an empty room under our prison. Here they
were kept for twenty-four hours, without food or blankets,
as a punishment, it was said, for not reporting the contem
plated escape of the officers named. From this treatment,
Surgeon Pierce of the 5th Maryland died.

The officers in the room above, removed a portion of
the floor and furnished the sick with food and drink, and
shared their blankets with them. This coming to the
knowledge of Major Turner, we were deprived of rations
for one day— October 29th, 1863.

This was not the action of the surgeons of the Libby,
for, with one exception, they were kind and attentive, and
did all in their power for our comfort, but of the com
mander of the department, Brigadier-General Winder, and
of Major Turner, commander of the prison, who, I am in
formed, was dismissed from West Point, by orders from the
Secretary of War, having been convicted of forgery.

I was informed by men whom I knew — Ward and Win-
ship of the 18th Connecticut, and Ferris and Stone of the
1st Connecticut — that the enclosure in Belle Isle was a
mass of filth every morning, from the inability of the men
to proceed to the sinks after evening.

Many of the guards would fire upon the prisoners for
the least violation of the rules. The men were in a miser
able condition and looked sickly, worn out — starvation
and exposure was expressed upon their features.

Trusting that the above will assist you in your report.
I am respectfully yours,

CHAELES FAKNSWOETH.

Sworn to and subscribed before me, this
1 8th day, of July, A. D. 1864,

DAVID YOUNG,

Justice of the Peace.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY KEBELS. 165

Testimony taken at Washington, D. C., June 2d,

1864.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

MB. WILKINS, DR. WALLACE, MR. WALDEN.

Surgeon NELSON D. FERGUSON, sivorn and examined: —

Surgeon 8th New York Cavalry ; residence, Jefferson
county, 1ST. Y. ; captured 12th May, 1863 ; taken to Libby
Prison same day; remained there twelve days; found
Union officers there ; my treatment same as officers re
ceived ; daily rations, when first entered, were four inches
by four inches by two of unbolted bread, which was coarse
and sour about half the time; a ration of beans, worm-
eaten, once a day ; about seven quarts to fifty-three or
fifty-four men, or a gill to each man was served ; no other
food was furnished by the Confederates ; what other they
had was bought with their own money.

(The ration of light bread of a common soldier in the
United States Army is twenty-two ounces, and twelve
ounces of pork or twenty of beef; besides that, our sol
diers have thirty pound of potatoes for one hundred ra
tions, or nearly a third of a pound per day to each man,
besides coffee and sugar, &c., &c.)

The food furnished us was insufficient for healthful sup
port of life.

When I reached the Libby Prison there were say
twenty-five Union officers, no more, in the prison, recently
captured ; all the former occupants had been removed, as
I am informed (and believe) by the rebels, to the number

166 APPENDIX.

of seven hundred or over ; when I left the prison on the
28th, there were sixty -nine Union officers there.

I spent four days in Hospital No. 21, where wounded
Union prisoners (very few sick) were under treatment ; I
was there partly as a visitor, and also did partial duty as a
surgeon in the ward ; I was too ill to do full duty ; I had
better rations in the hospital than in prison, for I had rye
coffee and a little meat, say two ounces daily, very poor
bacon ; the wounded men had the same ration of bread, no
beans, two ounces of meat, rye coffee, occasionally a little
sugar, and one gallon milk, and one gallon whisky, divided
among two hundred and sixty men, or about a tablespoon-
ful of whisky and milk per man ; they had no other nutri
ment or stimulation.

I consider the nourishment and stimulation they received
entirely insufficient to give them a proper chance for re
covery. I am surprised that more do not die. There were
many bad cases among them that must inevitably sink
under this treatment after a few days, and therefore I can
not state the true proportion of deaths. The condition of
these men was such that any medical observer would im
pute it to insufficient stimulation and nutrition. The condi
tion of the wounds generally was very unhealthy, not
tending to heal, pale and flabby, and the tissues lax — -just
such a condition as we expect to see where the patient is
improperly nourished by deficient nutrition. These wounded
have all been brought there since the battle of Spottsyl-
vania Court House.

When I was captured, I was brought into a rebel fort.
It was raining. I had on a rubber blanket ; the blanket was
taken from my shoulders by a lieutenant, by the authority
and consent of the commanding officer. I remonstrated
against his taking my private property, and appealed to
the commanding officer for protection, and to protect my
rights. He replied, " Damn you, you have no rights." It was
not possible for him to have been ignorant of the fact that
I was a medical officer. Some two or three hours after-

TKEATMENT OF UNION" PBISONEES BY KEBELS. 167

wards, when I was about to leave the fort for Libby
Prison, the lieutenant remarked to me, "I hope I have
treated you kindly." I replied, " I have always treated
your men and officers with kindness and consideration,
but you have treated me harshly." I don't think he made
any reply. The Provost-Marshal took away my sabre. I
told him it was my private property, and that he ought not
to take it away, and his answer was, " It don't make any
difference, I have a friend to whom I intend to give it."

I have had wounded rebels under my hand for treatment
on various occasions. The course I have always adopted is,
to take care of my own men first, then the rebels, giving
them equal care and attention of every kind. I have taken
my own private rations and given them repeatedly to
wounded rebels. All other medical officers of our army
have done likewise, as far as my observation has extended.
I have been in the service two years and eight months,
and I have been in all the cavalry fights of the Army of
the Potomac since I entered the service.

The buildings in Eichmond occupied for hospital pur
poses are well suited for such purposes, being large,, con
venient, and well ventilated. The wards are well supplied
with water, and tolerably cleanly. The prison (Libby) had
just been thoroughly cleaned and was well white-washed.
In the prison, we had one blanket as bed, and one as cover.
No one can appreciate, without experience, the condi
tion of the officers in the prison during the twelve days of
my stay. Their faces were pinched with hunger. I have
seen an officer, standing by the window, gnawing a bone
like a dog. I asked him "what do you do it for ?" II: s reply
was, " it will help fill up." They were constantly complain
ing of hunger. There was a sad and insatiable expression
of the face impossible to describe.

The bedding in Hospital No. 21, where the privates
were confined by wounds, was very dirty. The covering
was entirely old dirty quilts. The beds were offensive from
the discharges from wounds and secretions of the body,

168 APPENDIX.

and were utterly unfit to place a sick or wounded man on.
On the faces of the wounded there was an anxious, hag
gard expression of countenance, such as I have never seen
before. I attribute it to want of care, want of nourishment
and encouragement. There is a deficiency of medical sup
plies, such as bandages, lint, sticking-plaster, and medicines
generally in this hospital, whether from actual want of
these articles, or from unwillingness to supply them, I do
not know.

K D. FEEGUSON,

Surgeon 8th N. Y. Cavalry.

Sworn and subscribed before me, at
Washington, D. C., this 3d
day of June, A. D. 1864.

M. H. K KENDIG,

Notary Public.

D. W. EICHARDS, M. D., sworn and examined: —

Eesidence, Northampton County, Pa. ; employment, As
sistant Surgeon in l-±5th Pennsylvania Volunteers ; taken
prisoner May 10th, 1863 ; taken near Spottsylvania Court
House, and conveyed to Prison Hospital No. 21, in Eich-
mond, on the 20th of May, and left there 28th May.

I have heard Dr. Ferguson's deposition, as made before
this Committee. I corroborate that testimony as relating to
the condition and treatment of wounded prisoners. I know
nothing further in regard to this matter.

D. W. EICHAEDS,

Assistant Surgeon i45th P. V.

Sworn and subscribed before me, at
Washington, D. C., this 3d
day of June, A. D. 1864.

M. H. N. KENDIG,

Notary Public.

EVIDENCE

OF UNITED STATES AEMY SUEGEONS, IN CHAEGE OP THE
POUE HOSPITALS AT ANNAPOLIS AND BALTIMORE, MD,;
TO WHICH EETUENED UNION PEISONEES WEEE
BEOUGHT FEOM EIOHMOND, VA,

Also, Evidence obtained from Eye- Witnesses.

Testimony of Surgeon B. A. VanderKieft, in charge
of United States Army General Hospital Divi
sion No. i, Annapolis, Maryland. Taken
at the Hospital, May jist, 1864.

COMMISSIONEKS PRESENT :

MR. WILKINS, DR. WALLACE, MR. WALDEN.

I have been the recipient of all the prisoners returned
from Richmond since the 1st of June, 18 60, except one
steamboat load which were four hundred to five hundred.
I have received, I should judge, nearly (3000) three thou
sand; these are in a debilitated condition, badly clad, and
down- spirited, on account of ill-treatment by starvation and
exposure, as they all on inquiry agree in stating, and as I
am convinced is the case by their actual condition on their
arrival, and by rations shown to me, which they unanimously
state are the only ones given them.

(169)

170 , APPENDIX.

They unanimously state that their blankets, overcoats,
watches, and jewelry and money have been taken from
them, partially by their immediate captors, but also in a
quasi- official way, telling them that they will be restored
when they are released, which, as far as I know, and have
been informed, has never been done.

The returned prisoners state that the officials, such as
guards and nurses, often receive money from them, such as
they may have been able to secrete, with the promise that
they shall have the equivalent returned in food, which pro
mise is not performed.

Colonel Palmer de Cesinola (4th New York Cavalry) told
me that while acting as distributing commissary of articles
of food and clothing sent by United States Government and
United States Sanitary Commission, he observed that some
of our prisoners at Kichmond and Belle Isle, in order to
receive a less cruel treatment and to obtain larger rations,
were acting as shoemakers for the Rebel Government. He
at once told those men that such action was disloyal, as by
so doing they indirectly assisted the rebellion. The result of
this his remark induced the rebel authorities to deprive him
of the privilege of being longer a distributing commissary.

Almost in all cases I find that our men state that when
they were captured, they were in very good condition as to
general physical health; but I do not even need such a
statement, as I am well acquainted with the regulations
which govern the medical department of our army, "to
send to the rear every man who is not perfectly able to bear
arms," and if a few feeble men have fallen into the hands
of the rebels, they belong to the class called "stragglers,"
which certainly belong to the minority.

From my experience of fifteen years of constant medical
and military service in Northern Europe, the East Indies;
and Mediterranean, as well as in our own army since Sep
tember, 1861, I affirm that the treatment to which our men
have been subjected while prisoners of war in the hands of
the enemy, is against all rules of civilized warfare, and that

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 171

I would prefer to fall into the hands of the Chinese of Borneo,
called "Anack Baba," who murder their prisoners, than to
fall into the hands of the rebels, where the lives and com
fort of prisoners of war is a matter of such cruel indiffer
ence, to say the least, if not indeed, as one might almost be
justified in supposing, a matter of determined policy.

If I may believe the statements of our returned prisoners,
the diseases under which they are suffering when they come
into my hands, are attributable to the following causes, one
or more: deprivation of clothing, deficiency of food in
quantity and quality, want of fresh air, on account of over
crowding in prison buildings and consequent unavoidable
uncleanliness, and mental depression, the result of the
above causes, and want of adequate shelter, exposure dur
ing the fall and winter.

The diseases most common among these returned prisoners
are scurvy, diarrhoea, and congestion of the lungs, which
are not amenable to the ordinary treatment in use in civil
life or in hospitals of our own army.

They are most successfully mastered by high nutrition
and stimulation, with cleanliness and fresh air — medicinal
treatment being of small assistance in the recovery of the
sufferers, and often being entirely dispensed with.

The medical records in my office show that this system
is the only valid and effective mode of management, thus
proving by the counteracting effect of good food, air, clean
liness, and stimulants, that these disorders are the result of
the causes above stated.

I swear the above statement to be true.

B. A. YANDEEKIEFT,

Surgeon U. S. Volunteers in Charge.

Sworn and subscribed before me, this sixth
day of June, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-
four, (June 6th, 1864.)

[SEAL.] H. P. LESLIE,

Notary Public, for and in the County
of Anne Arundel, Maryland.

172 APPENDIX.

Testimony, by Letter, of Surgeon William S. Ely,
Executive Officer U. S. A. General Hos
pital Division, No. i, Annapolis,
Maryland, June 6th, 1864.

DB ELLERSLIE WALLACE:

Philadelphia, Penn.

DOCTOR: — I am in receipt of your communication of the
2d inst., and would reply as follows : —

I am an Assistant Surgeon of Volunteers in the service
of the United States, and have been on duty in this hospital
since October 3d; 1863, as executive officer and medical
officer in charge of a ward. I have been present on the
arrival of nearly every boat load of paroled prisoners since
my connection with this hospital commenced.

I remember distinctly the arrival of the flag-of-truce
steamer "New York," November 18th, 1863, and was present
and assisted in unloading the men. I went on board the
boat and saw bodies of six (6) men who had died during
the passage of the steamer from City Point, Yav to this
place. No words can describe their appearance. In each
case the sunken eye, the gaping mouth, the filthy skin, the
clothes and head alive with vermin, the repelling, bony
contour — all conspired to lead to the conclusion that we
were looking upon the victims of starvation, cruelty and
exposure, to a degree unparalleled in the history of hu
manity.

I have never seen more than the above number of dead in
any single arrival; but at other dates, and on several occa
sions, I have seen two (2) and three (3) dead on board the
boat, and have repeatedly known four (4) or six (6) to die
within twelve (12) hours of their reception into hospital.

TREATMENT OF TJXIOH PRISONERS BY REBELS. 173

The same condition evidenced in the cases of the six (6) re
ferred to above, has characterized nearly every instance, and
leads us irresistibly to the conclusion that death has been
owing to a long series of exposure and hardships, with a
deprivation of the barest necessities for existence.

I have known paroled prisoners of war to be admitted to
this hospital with barely sufficient clothing to cover their
nakedness. I cannot say that I have seen any single case
where a patient was admitted without either hat, coat, shoes,
shirt, or stockings, but I have repeatedly seen men without
one (1), two (2), or three (3) of these articles, and think thaf
I can say, that when they possessed all, it was an excep
tional case. It is our rule to strip each patient to his skin,
and provide all with entirely new clothing, because rags, filth
and vermin preponderate so largely as to render any further
use of the various articles of apparel upon the bodies of
patients reaching this point from Eichmond, Ya., unhealthy,
and in opposition to the simplest principles of hygiene.

Patients, when asked the manner in which they lost their
clothing, reply that they were robbed of what they had
when captured, or else, that during their imprisonment,
oftentimes extending over many months, their clothing,
piece by piece, wore out, and that they had no opportunity
to procure a change.

It is impossible for any. save those who have seen the
condition of paroled men soon after their release from cap
tivity, to have any idea of the state of the skin covering their
bodies. In many cases that I have observed, the dirt incrus
tation has been so thick as to require months of constant
ablution to recover the normal condition and function of the
integument. Patients have repeatedly stated, in answer to
my interrogations, " that they had been unable to wash their
bodies once in six (6) months ;" that all that time they had
lain in the dirt, and, as might naturally be expected, the
filth accumulation was constantly increasing. Frequently,
the entire cuticle must die and be detached before any
healthy action can be recovered.

174 APPENDIX.

I know not how to better compare the cutaneous condi
tion of these men in its different morbid states, than to liken
it, in feeling, to the effect produced upon the fingers by pass
ing them over sand-paper from the coarsest quality down to
that moderately fine.

Diaphoretic action in many such cases, I have found
almost unattainable. When we consider the importance of
the cutaneous secretion, relative to a state of health, it can
not be denied that, in many instances under attention, this
is the prime exciting cause of the diseases of the pulmonary
and abdominal organs, which are so constantly found among
our Richmond patients.

A great many post-mortem examinations of paroled pri
soners who have died in our hospitals, have been made by
myself and others. The thoracic organs are seldom found
healthy. The pectoral muscles are so much wasted as to ren
der the walls of the chest, to a certain extent, transparent.
The lungs frequently are found filling but half the pulmo
nary cavities. Old pleuritic adhesions, in all degrees of ex
tent, are generally seen ; almost invariably there is a local
stasis or congestion of blood, posteriorly and about the
roots of the lungs ; the heart is found flaccid, and often its
walls are attenuated ; when taken out and laid down, it flat
tens from its own weight, is seldom filled with a substantial
clot, and generally contains but a very little dark, thin blood.
Tubercular deposit is sometimes very extensive, and in cases
where there is no external appearance favoring the scrofu
lous diathesis, leading me to the conclusion that it has been
engendered ofttimes, in a previously healthy subject, by the
deprivation of good, wholesome food, and the combination
of unhealthy influences, to which so many of our prisoners
of war succumb. The liver is unusually pale in color, and
of anaemic aspect ; the intestines are sometimes much dis
eased, but frequently healthy. I have known many in
stances of marked chronic diarrhoea, resulting fatally, yet
disclosing no organic intestinal changes or morbid appear
ances, — favoring the supposition that the diarrhoea is often

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 175

only a symptom of a want of tonicity, not of organic dis
ease.

I consider the frequency of pulmonary congestions among
our patients from Richmond, owing to the altered condition
of the fluids of the system, especially the blood ; its fibri-
nous portion becomes diminished, and stagnation takes place
in the most depending portions of the lungs, giving us what
we term a hypostatic pneumonia, depending on the want of
tone in the vessels and consequent enfeebled. circulation.

The treatment which I have found most effective in aid
ing the restoration to health of our reduced Richmond
patients is, very briefly, as follows : Quinine, iron, and cod-
liver oil, (in their different preparations and combinations,)
in small doses; liquid concentrated nourishment, a rigid
enforcement of cleanliness, and regularity in eating and
drinking, and, if possible, the hygienic advantages of a tent
ward.

Our records exhibit a mortality among our patients frorn
Richmond of 18 per cent.

I am, Doctor, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

WILLIAM S. ELY,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. Volunteers.

Personally appeared before me this sixth
day of June, 1864, William S. Ely,
Assistant Surgeon U. S. Volunteers,
and took oath that the statements
above made are true to the best of
his knowledge and belief.

[SEAL.] HENRY P. LESLIE,

Notary Public, Anne Arundel Co., Md.

178 APPENDIX.

Testimony of Surgeon G. B. Parker in charge of

United States Army General Hospital, Division

No. 2, Annapolis, Maryland. Taken at

the Hospital May jist, 1864.

ALL THE COMMISSIONERS PRESENT.

Surgeon G. B. PARKER, sworn and examined: —

J have been in charge of this hospital one year. During
this time I have received a large number of prisoners in
exchange. Their condition has been very low, very feeble,
since last June. The large proportion of the cases received
here are marked " Debilitas." It was not specific disease
with them ; where it was, it was coupled with debility.

The majority of the diseased cases were diarrhoea caused
by bad diet — of insufficient and bad quality ; they have re
sulted from the want of variety of diet. This will produce
scurvy.

I have seen an hundred of the rations served to the men.
I do not consider the rations I have seen sufficient for the
support of life for any long time.

We give our men twenty ounces of beef on a march,
per day, and twenty-two ounces of bread ; fourteen ounces
of meat and ten ounces of bread will keep any man from
starving ; less than twelve ounces of bread and ten ounces
of meat per diem would produce disease, and if long con
tinued, would fail to keep life up to the standard in a great
majority of men. Lower than this would end in debility and

TREATMENT OF UNION PEISONERg BY EEBELS. 177

decline ; in proportion as you vary a man's diet, so is "his
general health.*

The majority of the men did walk from the landing here.
We did not receive the worst cases. In the main, the diseases
were produced by insufficient and a bad quality of diet.
Their stomachs were not able to retain a sufficient quantity
of solid food when the men first got here. I was led to the
belief that the diarrhoea was produced by bad diet.

I found nutrition was the most successful treatment.

Have had cases of frost bite here resulting in mortifica
tion of the ends of the toes. Those were cases from Rich
mond, eight or ten cases.

Though the men would be strong enough to walk from
the dock up here, at the same time they were in that debil
itated condition that a slight change of air would cause
congestion of the lungs, and death. Stimulants and tonics
are largely used.

There were a good many cases of scurvy. In the ma
jority of cases of diarrhoea, there would be scorbutic symp
toms. I had at one time eight returned prisoners who lost
their teeth. I suppose this was owing to the treatment
these men had received, and their diet.

At the hospital we give each man twenty ounces of bread
per day, and one pound of meat, including bone ; could not
give the per centage of bone ; we also give vegetables. In
the winter we give cabbage, potatoes rice and beans, mo
lasses, tea, butter. A healthy soldier would get no butter.
Twelve ounces of meat and twelve ounces of bread per day,
rejecting the other articles, would be insufficient to preserve
good health.

G. B. PARKER.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
May 3ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.

United States Commissioner.

* A ration which, had been given to one of the men, produced and
weighed : — weight two ounces of bread, and three-sixteenths of an
ounce of meat in its dry s.tate.

12

J J8 APPENDIX.

June ist, 1864.
COMMISSIONER PRESENT :

HON. J. I. CLARK HARE.

Surgeon G. B. PARKER, who was before sworn, recalled: —

A great many of those whom I mentioned yesterday as
suffering from debility and no specific disease, afterwards
recovered. Several cases where their appearance was really
favorable died very suddenly. On examination, post mor
tem, they were found exsanguinated to a wonderful degree ;
the evidence of which was in large white fibrinous clots
in the left side of the heart, and extending into the aorta.
This was found to be the case with a majority of those who
died. In other cases as I mentioned yesterday, they would
take on acute disease, generally congestion of the lungs,
and die within twenty -four hours after the attack.

G. B. PARKER,

Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 179

Testimony of Surgeon De Witt C. Peters, in charge

of Jarvis General Hospital, Baltimore, Md.,

taken at Baltimore June ist, 1864.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

DR. MOTT, DR. DELAFIELD, JFDGE HARE.

DE WITT C. PETER&, sworn and examined: —

I am an Assistant-Surgeon of the United States Army,
stationed at Jarvis General Hospital; Baltimore. On or
about the 16th of April, 1864, I received at the hospital
over which I have charge, some two hundred and fifty
paroled prisoners of war, recently returned from Belle
Island and Eichmond.

The greater majority of these men were in a semi-state
of nudity. They were laboring under such diseases as
chronic diarrhoea, phthisis pulmonalis, scurvy, frost bites,
general debility, caused by starvation, neglect, and exposure.

Many of them had partially lost their reason, forgetting
even the date of their capture and every thing connected
with their antecedent history. They resemble, in many
respects, patients laboring under cretinism.

They were filthy in the extreme, covered with vermin.
Some had extensive bed sores caused by laying in the sand
and dirt, and nearly all were extremely emaciated ; so much
so that they had to be cared for even like infants.

Their hair had not been cut, nor the men shaved in many
instances for montlis.

On inquiry of these men as to what was the matter with
them, the invariable answer was, starvation, exposure, and
neglect, while prisoners on Belle Island. They informed
me, that while on Belle Island during the inclement months

180

of the past winter, there were congregated at one time, in a
^pace less than three acres, one hundred and ten squads of
prisoners, each numbering one hundred persons. Less than
half of these had old worn out Sibley and other tents for
shelter. The remainder were obliged to accommodate them
selves as best they could. But a few of them had blankets.
These were issued to them by our Government under flag of
truce. Some had overcoats. Many had no shoes except
patches that they had contrived themselves.

Those that escaped freezing to death during the cold
nights, did so by exercising and by huddling together in
heaps like hogs, alternating places with those more exposed
in the heaps, and with those in the tents, until at last they
were obliged to go to the hospital. *

They informed me, that each morning, numbers were
found frozen to death, who had probably died from other
causes — exhaustion. They stated to me further, that they
believed this system of slow starvation was carried on to
prevent other men from enlisting in our army.

The ration allowed them was a small piece of corn bread,
the meal of which contained also the cob, a little rice soup
very rarely, and sometimes, but rarely, a small quantity of
meat — a few ounces ; they confessed that they had eaten dog
meat whenever they were so fortunate as to capture a dog.

In the hospitals, according to the statement made to me
by Hospital Steward James, United States Army, they fared
a little better, although, even there, they had an insufficiency
of food, and the beds were filthy and covered with vermin.
He states that at hospital No. 21, where he was serving as
one of the apothecaries during three months, January, Feb
ruary and March, there were admitted two thousand seven
hundred of our men, of whom nearly fourteen hundred and
fifty died.* They lacked medicines and all appliances

* The quarterly report from which these figures are taken, was
obtained and brought home by a returnecVUnion prisoner. It will be
found on pages 192-3.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 181

needed for the sick. The patients in the hospital had one
advantage over prisoners of war on Belle Island, that was,
they were allowed to buy a loaf of bread the size of a man's
fist, for which they paid five or six dollars Confederate
money.

Out of the two hundred and fifty men received by me, so
far, fifteen have died ; the post-mortems of which have made
apparent diseases of nearly all the viscera to a remarkable
extent.

I received one man incurably insane, caused, as I was
informed and believe, by joy, produced by the news that he
was to be exchanged. I found, from excess of habit, they
had become like savages in their habits, and lost the
decencies of life, and had to be taught like children the
decencies of society.

The health and constitutions of the majority of these men
are permanently undermined. Under proper care and treat
ment, which consisted in their not eating too much, a spare
but concentrated diet, many have rallied. In one instance a
boy gained forty pounds in two weeks ; he still has phthisis
and can hardly stand exposure or active exercise. A case
of scurvy occurred among others which is the worst I ever
saw or read of; a man turning red or nearly black from
head to foot ; he died in twenty-four hours.

I think nine-tenths of the men weighed under one hun
dred pounds; they appeared to be articulated skeletons;
covered with simply integument; had dropsy and oedema
in the feet, caused by weakness ; and were the most pitiable
objects to behold. They had an incontrollable appetite.

DE WITT C. PETEBS,

Assistant Surgeon United States Army, in charge
of Jarvis Hospital, Baltimore, Md.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

182 APPENDIX.

Testimony of Surgeon A. Chapel, in charge of West's

Buildings Hospital, Baltimore, Md., taken

at Baltimore, June 2, 1864.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

DR. MOTT, DR. DELAFIELD, JUDGE HARE.

Surgeon A. CHAPEL, affirmed and examined: —

I am Surgeon in charge of West's Buildings Hospital,
Baltimore. On the 18th of April, 1864, I received at the
hospital one hundred and five of the paroled prisoners from
Kichmond, brought to this point 011 the flag-of-truce boat
" New York.'1 These were the worst cases received at this
point by that boat ; none of them being able to stand alone.
All were brought into the hospital upon stretchers.

Nearly all were in an extreme state of emaciation, 'filthy
in the extreme, and covered with vermin. Some of them
so eaten by the vermin as to very nearly resemble a case of
scabbing from small -pox, being covered with sores from head
to foot, so as scarcely to be able to touch a well portion of
the skin with the point of the finger.

Their appearance was such in the way of filth and dirt,
as to convince any one that they had not had an opportu
nity for ablution for weeks and months. Several were in a
state of semi-insanity, and all seemed, and acted, and talked,
like children, in their desires for food, &c. Very few of
them had blankets or clothing some in a state of semi-
nudity.

Upon being questioned upon the causes of their condi
tion, the testimony was universal: — starvation, exposure,
and neglect, while prisoners at Eichmond and Belle Isle.

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 183

Their universal declaration was, in reference to their
living, that they were provided with only one small portion
of corn-bread per day, which was made simply from corn-
meal and water, without salt, not larger than a man's hand ;
it was about an inch and a quarter thick. This was the por
tion for the day. They sometimes got small portions of
meat once a day, two days in a week. Several of them told
me that they had been able to get occasionally a small piece
of the flesh of a dog, which they had cooked and eaten with
great relish, and that they had caught rats and eaten them
in the same way. Many of them believed that the meat
issued to them was cut from the bodies of mules.

They said, while on Belle Isle they had no means of
shelter, but were obliged to huddle together in heaps, to
protect themselves from the inclement weather ; — often one
or two blankets in thickness covering five or six persons ; —
often lying one upon another in tiers, and changing places
as they became tired out. They state that they had little
or no shelter while prisoners at Belle Isle.

We were obliged to treat them as children, in regulating
their diet in the hospital, having to restrain their over
eating, and confine them to a concentrated but nourishing
and generous diet.

Several cases had no disease whatever, but suffered from
extreme emaciation and starvation. The limb of one of
these men could be spanned with the thumb and finger, just
above the knee. This patient, a boy of nineteen years old,
would not weigh over fifty pounds then, though in health
probably one hundred and thirty-five pounds. This was
not a solitary instance, many others being extremely ema
ciated. Many presenting the appearance of mere living
skeletons, with the skin drawn tightly over the bones.

Many of them were laboring under such diseases as
dropsy, pulmonary consumption, scurvy, mortification from
cold, several having lost one-half of both feet from this
cause.

Several were afflicted with very severe bed-sores, caused

184: APPENDIX.

bj lying in the sand without shelter. One man, unable to
lie in any other way but on his face, and lived about four
weeks in this way.

Up to the present time, of the number received, (one hun
dred and five,) forty-two have died. All gave evidence of
extensive visceral disease, of which starvation, cold, and
neglect, were undoubtedly the primary cause. Some of the
cases sank from extreme debility, without any evidence of
disease as the cause of death.

A. CHAPEL,

Surgeon U. S. A.

Affirmed to and subscribed before me,
June zd, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Testimony of Miss D. L. Dix, taken at Baltimore,
Maryland, June ist, 1864.

Miss D. L. Dix, sworn and examined: —

Last winter I was at Annapolis and examined many hun
dred returned prisoners. I inquired of these men exactly
the manner in which they were fed and treated on Belle
Island, examined them individually, and by sixes and
sevens. I saw no disposition on the part of these men to
exaggerats their sufferings.

Inquiring from what causes they had suffered most
severely, whether rapid marches, exposure to inclement
weather, lack of apparel, or hunger, — the answer was inva
riably, "From hunger while at Belle Island." I inquired
the amount of animal food allowed a day, when they had
any at all , t'ney replied that an iron-bound bucket, filled

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 1S5

"with packed meat, was the allowance for one hundred men ;
the weight of bucket and meat would be twenty-five pounds.
When cooked this afforded a very small quantity for each
man.

As Winter and Spring advance?!, the only food sup
plied was corn meal mixed with water and roughly baked.
This bucket" of meat I speak of was allowed them about
twice a week, with a very little rice in the autumn. I
understand that in the hospitals they occasionally had a little
boiled rice, to which was sometimes added a very small
quantity of brown sugar or molasses.

I gather from Confederate authority as well as from our
returned prisoners, — and a Confederate official whose evi
dence cannot be questioned in that matter, declared, that
the sole sustenance at Belle Island was corn meal and water, —
that of the numbers remaining at Belle Island, then about
eight thousand, about twenty-five died daily ; that the mor
tality in Georgia was still greater, and that it would be but
a few weeks before the deaths would count fifty a day.

Another fact which he affirmed as a reason for with hold
ing so much from our prisoners, sent by their friends and
the Government, was the cruel and severe restrictions
imposed on their men in our hands.

I had visited those very prisoners to whom he referred
at Point Lookout ; they were supplied with vegetables, with
the best wheat bread, and fresh or salt meat three times
daily, in abundant measure — the full Government ration.

In the camp of about nine thousand rebel prisoners, there
were but four hundred reported to the surgeon ; of these^
one hundred were confined to their beds, thirty were very
sick, and perhaps fifteen or twenty would never recover.

The hospital food consisted of beef tea, beef soup, rice,
milk, milk punch, milk gruel, lemonade, stewed fruits, beef
steak, vegetables and mutton; white sugar was employed
in cooking. The supplies were, in fact, more ample and
abundant than in hospitals where on** own men were under
treatment.

186 APPENDIX.

To return to the condition of the Federal prisoners on
Belle Island, there was at no time adequate shelter for the
entire number till late in spring, when the number had been
greatly reduced by transfer to Georgia, exchanges, and
death. *

I was told that in the morning it was not uncommon to
find men dead from exposure and rain.

I have repeatedly seen the exchanged prisoners reduced
to the lowest extremity through want of food. Of more
than four hundred landed in Baltimore, some little time
since, nearly, if not the entire number, were suffering from
the effects of hunger ; more than one hundred of these were
takoL a few yards across the wharf, to the hospital, on
stretchers ; seven died before they could be taken into the
building, and seven more that same night. Their clothing
was filthy to the last degree ; they were covered with ver
min ; they were the merest bundles of bones and skin, and
some bones piercing the flesh. The cries of these poor men
for food, were pitiful in the extreme.

In addition to their other sufferings, many had lost por
tions of their feet by frost. The minds showed the weakness
of the body. Some were reduced to idiocy. They would
entreat for an apple or a bit of meat to look at, if they could
not be allowed solid food. Many of these poor creatures
died, and others, I understand from surgeons, are enfeebled
for life.

Many of these prisoners when brought on the flag-of-truce
boat, were observed to clasp their hands and fix their gaze
upon the American flag : " It is enough, thank God, we are
at home." A remarkable trial of disinterestedness : Eev.
M. Hall said, " What can I t\> for you, my boys?" "Hasten
exchanges and bring away our comrades."

A gentleman of Washington, who had been permitted to
convey a body for burial to the South, on board the flag-of-
truce boat, remarked that all the rebel prisoners were in
vigorous health, equipped in clothes furnished by the
United States Government; many of them with blankets

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 187

and haversacks, while we received in return not one able-
bodied man at that time. I have witnessed this fact myself,
on other occasions on the flag-of-truce boats.

The rations served to the prisoners on Belle Island,
whether drawn from supplies furnished by the Federal
Government, or through the individual liberality of North
ern citizens, were never dispensed in sufficient quantities by
the Confederate authorities to satisfy hunger.

I have seen tons of provisions shipped on the flag-of-truce
boat from the North, for the relief of our prisoners at Eich-
mond. Little or nothing came from -the South for rebel
prisoners at the North. Clothing and blankets were sent
by our Government to the prisoners in quantities, but not
fully distributed.

One reason why our men were so wholly destitute of
, clothing at a late season, was the temptation they were
under to give them away for a biscuit, or a small quantity
of food, to save them from starvation.

D. L. DIX.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June i, i86A.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

I certify that the foregoing testimony was taken and
reduced to writing in presence of the respective witnesses,
and by them sworn or affirmed to in my presence, at the
times, places, and in the manner set forth.

D. P. BEOWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

188 APPENDIX.

Testimony of Joseph B. Abbott, Special Relief

Agent United States Sanitary Commission,

taken at Washington, D. C.,

June jrd, 1864.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

ME. WILKINS, DR. WALLACE, MR. WALDEN.

JOSEPH B. ABBOTT, aged twenty-eight years, Agent off
Special Belief Department, United States Sanitary Commis
sion. Holds his commission as Chief Assistant, Special
Relief Department, United States Sanitary Commission. Is
a native of New Hampshire, has been a resident of North
Carolina, resided in North Carolina nearly four years, prior
to the war. Has been engaged with the United States
Sanitary Commission since March 12th, 1862.

During the past Spring, since February, my position has
given me means of observation of returned prisoners from
Richmond, Belle Island, Danville, Salisbury, and Columbia,
but directly from Richmond. I first came in contact at
Fortress Monroe with prisoners on flag-of-truce boats, from
City Point to Annapolis. The men had no blankets, but
what were said to have been furnished them at City Point
by the United States Government. Yery few nad coats;
many had no shirts ; pants, poor, ragged and dirty ; clothing
all dirty ; skin very filthy, and covered with vermin. One
man had convulsions all the time during the trip. Assistant
Surgeon Dr. Fry told me that they werev caused by vermin.
The man was much emaciated ; vermin very thick upon his

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 189

body — common body lice. He was scratching as at lice, and
throwing them off him and slapping them with his blanket.

This is a general statement of all my observation.

My experience extended over three boat loads. "No differ
ence in fho condition of the prisoners' clothing. The condi
tion of the men on the last boat as to physical state, was
worse than all previous. Two or three boat loads have
arrived since my services ceased. Mr. Thompson, one of
the United States Sanitary Commission Agents, accompanied,
the men on these boats. Mr. Thompson is now at White
House, Virginia, on the Pamunky river. Cannot communi
cate with him by telegraph.

In general aspect and condition of returned prisoners, all
were more or less emaciated. Of the first boat load, three-
fifths very much so. Of second and third boats, four-fifths
very much so. The condition of some of those who were
less emaciated than others, was owing to their having money
with which they purchased provisions. I believe the fact
from statements made by them on my inquiry. My atten •
tioa was drawn to the fact by the Assistant Surgeon. I could
pick out the men that had money by their physical con
dition.

Clothing was usually taken from them by their captors
before their arrival at Eichmond. Money was taken from
them officially just before entering prison, except those that
had succeeded in secreting it. I believe these facts from
statements made by the men. They were also credited with
the amounts, and were told that when released the amounts
would be returned. I heard of no soldier who had it re
turned to him. In case of officers it was sometimes returned
in Confederate currency.

On the first boat load there was about one hundred and
fifty on cots sick, — with diarrhoea generally: Many of these
one hundred and fifty men had the scurvy; great man}
suffering from pneumonia. Often heard the physician say
that these disorders were due to confinement, exposure, and
bad food. In all I saw some ten or twelve dying on the

190 APPENDIX.

boats. From the last boat I saw five come off on shore
in a dying state. I saw one man die on the boat ; the Doctor
said his death was caused by starvation. Saw one already
dead on the boat at Fortress Monroe. The Doctor said his
death was caused by eating. He died from eating too much
after he had been starved. He obtained this over amount of
food after having come into our hands.

The Doctor said that he had to be very cautious in giving
them their rations, or they would injure themselves by
getting too much ; that several had died in consequence of
eatiDg too much, which they obtained from their comrades,
who were too feeble and too far gone to eat the rations
which were given them. Some would secrete their rations
and try to get a second ration. The Assistant Surgeon told
me that the one I had seen dead, had eaten three rations
which he had obtained from his comrades.

The prisoners on board the boats stated that their diseases
and sufferings, such as I witnessed, were caused by want of
protection from wet and cold, and by insufficient and bad
food ; this was their invariable statement

The Union prisoners were not at all vindictive, and ex
pressed a desire to have the rebel prisoners well clothed and
fed ; this was the case with all the men I spoke to on the
subject on the three boats.

My reason for making this inquiry was the remark of the
Union prisoners in regard to the healthy condition of the
rebel prisoners who were exchanged. Some of them re
marked that it would make the condition of the Union
prisoners worse if they attempted to retaliate, and would do
no good. The general idea as expressed by the men was,
that they did not wish to see the rebel prisoners treated as
they had been.

I have been on the battle-field and in hospitals and wit
nessed much suffering, but never did I experience so sad
and deplorable a condition of human beings, as that of the
paroled Union prisoners just from Belle Island, and the
rebel prisons of the South, emaciated by starvation, with

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 191

impaired minds, vision, powers of speech and hearing, oc
casioned by want of sufficiency of wholesome food, exposure
to the cold and inclement storms of wind and rain. I believe
from what I have seen and experienced among our unfortu
nate prisoners on board the flag-of-truce boats, that their
barbarous treatment and sufferings which they endured
while confined in the military prisons of the South, can
hardly be exaggerated.

J. B. ABBOTT.

Sworn and subscribed before me at Washington,
D. C., this 3d day of June, A. D. 1864.

M. H. K KENDIG,

Notary Public.

102

APPENDIX.

QUARTERLY REPORT

Of the Hospitals for the Federal prisoners, Eichmond, Va,, furnished
by Surgeon-General, 0, S, A., April 1, 1864, Obtained by a paroled
and returned Federal prisoner,

DISEASES.

JANUARY.

FEBRUARY.

MARCH.

1
Cases.

Deaths.

Cases.

Deaths.

Cases.

Deaths.
a

5

Febris Cont. Communis.....
^ ~[n{; Quart

5
6
4
10
18
11
14

3

23
20

1

10

20

" " Tertiana

20
35
3
15

11
35
1
6

4
29
1
4

12
1
1

28
1

7

Variola ) Convales-

1 1

27
283
9
27
2

31
229
36
18
4

18
193
4
12
1

100
337
23
34
1
1

13
265
6
24

JLo

250
3
20
1

" Clironica ..

TTpnntitis OliVOllica

4
4

2
1
3
7
1
46
45
1
35
2
8
10
207
1
1
1
1
3

1

4
4
3

o

3

Tonsillitis

3
1

7
16

1

21
20

1
1
6

i

Bronchitis Acuta -

12

50

3
39
[

Cit'irrhns Epitlcmicus

10

1

4

17
1
1

12
120

9

1

9

109

Plitlr's'S Pulnioiicilis

6
9
G3

2
1
38

5
5
97

1
1

1
1
4
1

1

1
1

1

THtTnns

2

Bubo Sypliiliticurn •«•

1

GonorrlicBa

5
1
1
2
2
6

1

1
6

4
1

Orcliitis

Sypliilis Primitiva

1

" Consect ,

2

Anasarca

4

7

2 8

7

TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY REBELS. 193

DISEASES.

JANUARY.

FEBRUARY.

MARCH.

Cases.

Deaths.

Casco.

Deaths.

Cases. Deaths.

Ascites

1

2

1

Ilydrotliorax

1

12
14

11

40

2

23

I

" Chronica

4

42

2

12

1
1
1
15

XJlcus

4

1
6

1

1

20
1
15

"Vulnus Sclopiticu.ni . .

1

27

20

3

Otltfs

4

107
2
6
7
1

23

17
1

33
6
9
17

21

2

JVIorbi Cutis

7

3

7

Dry Gangrene from Frozen
Feet . «

27

3

4

Total

646

311

1252

524

881

561

2779
1396

To'al Deaths

A true copy.
A true copy.

(Signed) A. R ROOT,

Colonel Commanding, Camp Parole.

B. A. VANDERKIEFT,

Surgeon U. S. Vols. in charge U. S. General Hospital,
Division No. I, Annapolis, Md.

The Commission have received a letter from Col. A. R. ROOT, Commanding, &c., stating
that he has satisfactory evidence of the authenticity and reliableness of this "Quarterly
Report."

13

EVIDENCE

RELATING TO

UNITED STATES STATIONS

FOR

REBEL PRISONERS.

(195)

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 197

Letter from Quartermaster-General, M. C. Meigs,
United States Army.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 6th, 1864.

DR. ELLERSLIE WALLACE,

Philadelphia.

SIR, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 20th nit., in which, in behalf of a Com
mittee of the United States Sanitary Commission, you
make inquiry in relation to the condition and treatment of
rebel prisoners of war in our hands.

In reply, you are respectfully informed that such pri
soners are treated with all the consideration and kindness
that might be expected of a humane and Christian people.
The rations allowed to them are ample and of good quality.
The reduction recently made in the prisoner's ration, was
for the purpose of bringing it nearer to what the rebel
authorities profess to allow their soldiers, and no complaint
lias been heard of its insufficiency.

Suitable provision has been made by the Government
for supplying the prisoners with all necessary clothing and
blankets; and at each depot there is a sutler, authorized to
sell to them, at reasonable rates, certain prescribed articles
of comfort and convenience, such as our soldiers desire to
purchase.

Fuel is provided by the army regulations, and is liber
ally furnished.

198 APPENDIX.

Shelter is not denied to any "during the inclement and
cold season," and for those who require them, comfortable
hospital accommodations, and skillful medical and surgical
attention are provided.

The Commissary-General of Prisoners informs me that
he has heard of no orders to shoot prisoners for being at
the windows or near them, and he does not believe that
orders of that character have any where been given. He
has heard of no prisoners being shot under such cir
cumstances.

General Butler did, in the early part of this year, offer to
exchange prisoners, grade for grade, and man for man, of
those at Point Lookout, and two other places, but the pro
position was not acceded to by the rebel authorities.

Your inquiries are thus substantially answered.

I enclose copies of the orders of the Commissary- General
of Prisoners, regulating the conduct and treatment of
prisoners of war, and the rations they now receive.*
I am, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General.

* Printed in this Appendix.

FORT DELAWARE.

Testimony taken at Fort Delaware, June 2ist, 1864.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :
DK. WALLACE, JUDGE HARE.

Captain GILBERT S. CLARK, sworn and examined: —

I came to this post 18th March, 1862, and the Subsistence
Department at this post has been under my charge since
May, 1862.

The rations were as follow :

Bread — 18 ounces per ration ; or,

Corn Meal — 20 ounces per ration.

Beef — 1 pound per ration ; or,

Bacon or Pork — |- pound per ration.

Beans — 8 quarts per one hundred men ; or,

Hominy or Eice — 10 pounds per one hundred men.

Sugar — 14 pounds per one hundred men.

Eio Coffee — 7 or 9 pounds per hundred men.

Adamantine Candles — 5 per one hundred men ; or,

Tallow Candles — 6 per one hundred men.

Soap — 4 pounds per one hundred men,

Salt — 2 quarts per one hundred men.

Molasses — 4 quarts per one hundred men twice per week.

Potatoes — 1 pound per man, three times per week.
When beans were issued, hominy or rice not issued.

These were the rations to which the prisoners were

(199)

200 APPEXDTX.

entitled. Bread was issued, in point of fact, and not corn
meal. Fresh beef was issued, during this time, four times a,
week AY hen we had to give them hard bread they received
a pound. When fresh beef was given, a pound and a quarter
was given, and a less proportion of salt meat.

This was done by orders of the commanding officer, with
a view to the sanitary condition of the men.

According to instructions from the Commissary-General
of Prisoners, a fund was created by selling all surplus
rations, under regulations, and with this fund were pur
chased vegetables in addition to the regular rations. The
order referred to, under which this course was adopted, was
as follows :

CIRCULAR.

"V. A general fund, for the benefit of the prisoners, will
.be made by withholding from their rations all that can be
spared without inconvenience to them, and selling this sur
plus, under existing regulations, to the Commissary, who
will hold the funds in his hands, and be accountable for
them, subject to the commanding officer's order to cover
purchases. The purchases with the fund will be made by
or through the Quartermaster, with the approval or order
of the commanding officer, the bills being paid by the Com
missary, who will keep an account book, in which will be
carefully entered all receipts and payments, with the
vouchers; and he will keep the commanding officer ad
vised, from time to time, of the amount of this fund. At
the end of the month he will furnish the commanding offi
cer with an account of the fund for the month, showing the
receipts and disbursements, which account will be forwarded
to the Commissary-General of Prisoners, with the remarks
of the commanding officer. With this fund will be pur
chased all such articles as may be necessary for the health

TKEATMENT OF EEBEL PEISONERS. 201

and comfort of the prisoners, and which would otherwise
have to be purchased by the Government: among these
articles are all table furniture and cooking utensils, articles
for policing purposes, bedticks and straw, the means of
improving or enlarging the barracks accommodation, extra
pay to clerks who have charge of the camp, post-office, and
who keep the accounts of moneys deposited with the com
manding officer, &c., &c."

The provisions, according to my return, actually issued,
were the same as for the garrison troops. The rations detailed
above were the rations actually given to the men. The
amount drawn on the books, for their account, was larger —
and as large as that issued to the garrison, with the excep
tion of flour or bread, which was eighteen ounces instead
of twenty-two ounces. When I say actually issued, I mean
when entered on my returns as issued. The difference
between the amount thus issued, and the amount given as
above, was sold and converted into a fund for the benefit
of the prisoners, as I have stated, according to the order of
which I have given an extract.

This fund was expended and applied for their use in the
purchase of extra vegetables and articles of comfort.

This course is pursued towards our own troops in camp
and garrison ; the surplus which they do not use being sold
for their benefit to the Commissary of Subsistence, and
regularly entered, and the proceeds applied to their use.

The surplus rations sold for the prisoners were about the
same as those sold for the garrison at the same time, show
ing that the amount actually consumed by the prisoners
was about the same, per man, as that consumed by the
garrison. When hard bread is issued, prisoners not unfre-
quently leave a portion of it on the table. A large amount
of bread has been found stowed away by them in the bar
racks. The rations are precisely the same as that used for
garrison, and of a very good quality.

202

APPENDIX.

My expenditures for vegetables alone, for the use of tlie
prisoners, out of the fund arising from the sale of the sur
plus rations, amounted, at times, as high as from $2,000 to
$3,000 a month. For instance, I would buy extra quantities
of potatoes and onions, turnips, cabbage, pickles, carrots.

I have frequently asked my overseers if the prisoners
complained of not having enough, and if they did, to give
them more, and to let no man want, as I could afford to do
from the savings. During all the time I have been here, I
have scarcely heard a complaint. No material change was
made in the rations given to the prisoners till the first of
this month, (June, '64) ; since this date, the following has
been the ration given the prisoners :

The rations issued on the returns remained the same as
before. The amount given was reduced to the following
quantity, by order of the Secretary of War :

" Pork or Bacon, . .
Fresh Beef, . . .
Flour, or Soft Bread,
Hard Bread, . . .

"B."

4
" KATION I

10 ozs. (in lieu of fresh beef.)

14 "

16 "

14 " (in lieu of Flour or Soft

Bread.)
(in lieu of Flour or Bread.)

to 100 rations.

Corn Meal, . . . . 16 "
Beans or Peas, . . . 12J Ibs.
or, Rice, or Hominy, . 8 "

Soap, 4 "

Vinegar, 3 qts.

Salt, 3} Ibs.

Potatoes, ..... 15 "

Sugar and coffee, or tea, will be issued only to the sick
and wounded, on the recommendation of the surgeon in
charge, at the rate of twelve (12) pounds of sugar ; five (5)

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 203

pounds of ground or seven (7) pounds of green coffee, or
one (1) pound of tea, to the one hundred rations. This
part of the ration will be allowed only for every other day."

The difference between the ration given and the ration
issued continues to be sold, and the proceeds applied to the
benefit of the prisoners, as before. The consequence is
that the surplus fund for their use is larger.

I refer to the circulars issued by the War Department,
April 20th, 1864, and June 1st, 1864, as containing the
regulations under which I am now acting, hereto append
ed, marked "A" and " B."

The bread, as now issued, is made one-fifth of corn meal
and four-fifths of flour. This change was made at the re
quest of the prisoners.

I use the same quality of bread.

GILBERT S. CLARK,

Captain and C. S. Vol.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June aist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

"A."

" OFFICE OF COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,
WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864.

" [CIRCULAR.]

" By authority of the War Department, the following Reg
ulations will be observed at all stations where prisoners of
war and political or State prisoners are held. These reg
ulations will supersede those issued from this office July 7,
1861:

I. The Commanding Officer at each station is held ac-

204 APPENDIX.

countable for the discipline and good order of his command,
and for the security of the prisoners, and will take such
measures, with the means placed at his disposal, as will
best secure these results. He will divide the prisoners into
companies, and will cause written reports to be made to
him of their condition every morning, showing the changes
made during the preceding twenty-four hours, giving the
names of the "joined," "transferred," "deaths," &c. At
the end of every month Commanders will send to the
Commissary-General of Prisoners a Eeturn of Prisoners,
giving names and details to explain " alterations." , If rolls
of "joined" or "transferred" have been forwarded during
the month, it will be sufficient to refer to them on the re
turn according to forms furnished.

II. On the arrival of any prisoners at any station, \\
careful comparison of them with the rolls which accom
pany them will be made, and all errors on the rolls will bo
corrected. "When no roll accompanies the prisoners, on* )
will immediately be made out, containing all the informa •
tion required, as correct as can be, from the statements of
prisoners themselves. When the prisoners are citizen?.,
the town, county and State from which they come will bo
given on the rolls under the headings — Bank, Kegiment,
and Company. At stations where prisoners are received
frequently, and in small parties, a list will be furnished
every fifth day — the last one in the month may be for six
days — of all prisoners received during the preceding five
days. Immediately on their arrival, prisoners will be re
quired to give up all arms and weapons of every descrip
tion, of which the Commanding Officer will require an
accurate list to be made. When prisoners are forwarded
for exchange, duplicate parole rolls, signed by the prison
ers, will be sent with them, and an ordinary roll will be
sent to the Commissary-General of Prisoners. When they
are transferred from one station to another, an ordinary roll

TREATMENT OF EEBEL PRISONERS. 205

will be sent with them, and a copy of it to the Commissary-
General of Prisoners. In all cases, the officer charged with
conducting prisoners will report to the officer under whose
orders he acts, the execution of his service, furnishing a
receipt for the prisoners delivered, and accounting by name
for those not delivered ; which report will be forwarded,
without delay, to the Commissary- General of Prisoners.

III. The hospital will be under the immediate charge
of the senior Medical Officer present, who will be held re
sponsible to the Commanding Officer for its good order
and the proper treatment of the sick. A fund for this
hospital will be created as for other hospitals. It will be
kept separate from the fund of the hospital for the troops,
and will be expended for the objects specified, and in the
manner prescribed in paragraph 1212, Kevised Eegulations
for the Army of 1863, except that the requisition of the
Medical Officer in charge, and the bill of purchase, before
payment, shall be approved by the Commanding Officer.
"When this "fund " is sufficiently large, it may be expend
ed also for shirts and drawers for the sick, the expense of
washing clothes, articles for policing purposes, and all
articles and objects indispensably necessary to promote the
sanitary condition of the hospital.

IV. Surgeons in charge of hospitals where there are
prisoners of war will make to the Commissary- General of
Prisoners, through the Commanding Officer, semi-monthly
reports of deaths, giving names, rank, regiment, and com
pany ; date and place of capture ; date and cause of death ;
place of interment, and No. of grave. Effects of deceased
prisoners will be taken possession of by the Commanding
Officer, the money and valuables to be reported to this
office, (see note on blank reports,) the clothing of any value
to be given to such prisoners as require it. Money left by
deceased prisoners, or accruing from the sale of their effects,
will be placed in the Prison Fund.

20G APPENDIX.

Y. A fund, to be called " The Prison Fund," and to be
applied in procuring such articles as may be necessary for
the health and convenience of the prisoners, not expressly
provided for by General Army Regulations, 1863, will be
made by withholding from their rations such parts thereof
as can be conveniently dispensed with. The Abstract of
Issues to Prisoners, and Statement of the Prison Fund,
shall be made out, commencing with the month of May,
1864, in the same manner as is prescribed for the Abstract
of Issues to Hospital and Statement of the Hospital Fund,
(see paragraphs 1209, 1215, and 1246, and Form 5, Subsist
ence Department, Army Regulations, 1863,) with such
modifications in language as may be necessary. The ration
for issue to prisoners will be composed as follows, viz :

Hard Bread,

14 oz. per one ration, or 18

oz. Soft

Bread, one ration.

Corn Meal,

18 oz. per one ration.

Beef,

^4. « " «••

Bacon or Pork,

10 " " "

Beans,

6 qts. per 100 men.

Hominy or Rice,

8 Ibs. "

Sugar,

^4. <i « (i

R. Coffee,

5 Ibs. ground, or 7 Ibs raw,

per 100

or

men.

Tea,

18 oz. per 100 men.

Soap,

A (C (( u

Adamantine Candles,

5 candles per 100 men.

Tallow Candles,

/? « (t «

Salt,

2 qts. " "

Molasses,

1 qt. ", "

Potatoes,

30 Ibs.

"When beans are issued, hominy or rice will not be. If
at any time it should seem advisable to make any change
in this scale, the circumstances will be reported to the
Commissary-General of Prisoners for his consideration.

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 207

VI. Disbursements to be charged against the Prison
Fund will be made by the Commissary of Subsistence, on
the order of the Commanding Officer ; and all such expendi
tures of funds will be accounted for by the Commissary, in
the manner prescribed for the disbursements of the Hos
pital Fund. When in any month the items of expenditures
on account of the Prison Fund cannot be conveniently
entered on the Abstract of Issues to Prisoners, a list of the
articles and quantities purchased, prices paid, statement of
services rendered, &c., certified by the Commissary as
correct, and approved by the Commanding Officer, will
accompany the Abstract. In such cases it will only be
necessary to enter on the Abstract of Issues the total
amount of funds thus expended.

VII. At the end of each calendar month, the Command
ing Officer will transmit to the Commissary-General of
Prisoners a copy of the " Statement of the Prison Fund,"
as shown in the Abstract of Issues for that month, with a
copy of the list of expenditures specified in preceding
paragraph, accompanied by vouchers, and will endorse
thereon, or convey in letter of transmittal, such remarks as
the matter may seem to require.

VIII. The Prison Fund is a credit with the Subsistence
Department, and, at the request of the Commissary-General
of Prisoners, may be transferred by the Commissary-Gene
ral of Subsistence in manner prescribed by existing Regu
lations for the transfer of Hospital Fund.

IX. With the Prison Fund may be purchased such arti
cles not provided for by regulations as may be necessary
for the health and proper condition of the prisoners, such
as table furniture, cooking utensils, articles for policing,
straw, the means of improving or enlarging the barra cks or
hospitals, &c. It will also be used to pay clerks, and other

208 APPENDIX.

employees engaged in labors connected with prisoners. No
barracks or other structures will be erected or enlarged,
and no alterations made, without first submitting a plan
and estimate of the cost to the Commissary-General of
Prisoners, to be laid before the Secretary of War for his
approval ; and in no case will the services of clerks or of
other employees be paid for without the sanction of the
Commissary-General of Prisoners. Soldiers employed
with such sanction will be allowed 40 cents per day when
employed as clerks, stewards, or mechanics ; 25 cents a day
wrhen employed as laborers.

X. It is made the duty of the Quartermaster, or, when
there is none, the Commissary, under the orders of the
Commanding Officer, to procure all articles required for
the prisoners, and to hire clerks or other employees. All
bills for service, or for articles purchased, will be certified
by the Quartermaster, and will be paid by the Commissary
on the order of the Commanding Officer, who is held
responsible that all expenditures are for authorized pur
poses.

XI. The Quartermaster will be held accountable for all
property purchased with the Prison Fund, and he will
make a return of it to the Commissary-General of Prisoners
at the end of each calendar month, which will show the
articles on hand on the first day of the month; the articles
purchased, issued and expended during the month ; and
the articles remaining on hand. The return will be sup
ported by abstracts of the articles purchased, issued, and
expended, certified by the Quartermaster, and approved by
the Commanding Officer.

XII. The Commanding Officer will cause requisitions to
be made by his Quartermaster for such clothing as may be
absolutely necessary for the prisoners, which requisition
will be approved by him, after a careful inquiry as to the

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 209

necessity, and submitted for the approval of the Commis
sary-General of Prisoners. The clothiag will be issued by
the Quartermaster to the prisoners, with the assistance and
under the supervision of an officer detailed for the pur
pose, whose certificate that the issue has been made in his
presence will be the Quartermaster's voucher for the cloth
ing issued. From the 30th of April to the 1st of October,
neither drawers nor socks will be allowed, except to the
sick. When army clothing is issued, buttons and trim
mings will be taken off the coats, and the skirts will be cut
so short that prisoners who wear them will not be mis
taken for United States soldiers.

XIII. The Sutler for the prisoners is entirely under the
control of the Commanding Officer, who will require him
to furnish the prescribed articles, and at reasonable rates.
For this privilege the Sutler will be taxed a small amount
by the Commanding Officer, according to the amount of his
trade, which tax will be placed in the hands of the Com
missary to make part of the Prison Fund.

XIY. All money in possession of prisoners, or received
by them, will be taken charge of by the Commanding
Officer, who will give receipts for it to those to whom it
belongs. Sales will be made to prisoners by the Sutler on
orders on the Commanding Officer, which orders will be
kept as vouchers in the settlement of the individual
accounts. The Commanding Officer will procure proper
books in which to keep an account of all moneys deposited
in his hands, these accounts to be always subject to inspec
tion by the Commissary -General of Prisoners, or other in
specting officer. When prisoners are transferred from the
post, the moneys belonging to them, with a statement of the
amount due each, will be sent with them, to be turned
over by the officer in charge to the officer to whom the
prisoners are delivered, who will give receipts for the

H

210 APPENDIX.

money. "When prisoners are paroled, their money will
be returned to them.

XY. All articles sent by friends to prisoners, if proper to
be delivered, will be carefully distributed as the donors may
request ; such as are intended for the sick passing through
the hands of the Surgeon, who will be responsible for their
proper use. Contributions must be received by an officer,
who will be held responsible that they are delivered to the
person for whom they are intended. All uniform clothing,
boots, or equipments of any kind for military service,
weapons of all kinds, and intoxicating liquors, including
malt liquors, are among the contraband articles. The
material for outer clothing should be gray, or some dark
mixed color, and of inferior quality. Any excess of
clothing, over what is required for immediate use, is con
traband.

/

XYI. When prisoners are seriously ill, their nearest
relatives, being loyal, may be permitted to make them
short visits ; but under no other circumstances will visitors
be admitted without the authority of the Commissary-Gen
eral of Prisoners. At those places where the guard is
inside the enclosure, persons having official business to
transact with the Commander or other officer, will be
admitted for such purposes, but will not be allowed to
have any communication with the prisoners.

XVII. Prisoners will be permitted to write and to re
ceive letters, not to exceed one page of common letter
paper each, provided the matter is strictly of a private
nature. Such letters must be examined by a reliable non
commissioned officer, appointed for that purpose by the
Commanding Officer, before they are forwarded or deliv
ered to the prisoners.

XVIII. Prisoners who have been reported to the Com-

TEEATMENT OF EEBEL PEISONEES. 211

missary-General of Prisoners, will not be paroled or released
except by authority of the Secretary of War.

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel 3d Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

Official:

W. T. HAET,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

S. E. CKAIGE sworn and examined: —

I have been Quartermaster here since August, 1863.
The amount of clothing issued to the prisoners from Sep
tember 1st, 1863, to May 1st, 1864, by the Quartermaster's
Department, will appear from the following statement pre
pared by me from the books :

QUAETEEMASTEE'S OFFICE, FOET DELAWAEE,

June 21st, 1864.
CAPT. S. E. CEAIGE,

A. Q. M. Vols.

Statement of Clothing issued to Prisoners of War, from
Sept. 1st, 1863, to May 1st, 1864 :

7175 Pairs Drawers, (Canton flannel.)

6260 Shirts, (Flannel.)

8807 Pairs Woolen Stockings.

1094 Jackets and Coats.

3480 Pairs Bootees.

1310 Pairs Trowsers.

4378 Woolen Blankets.

2680 Great Coats.

The principal part of the clothing was issued in October
and November, 1863, and every prisoner not having an
overcoat and blanket of his own, was provided with one.

All that were in want of clothing received it.
The barracks were kept comfortable by stoves; no stint
in fuel that I know of ; the attendants kept the fires up.

212 APPENDIX.

Three hundred tons of coal provided by me, were consumed
by the prisoners in the winter and spring. This, in addition
to wood used for baking, and to the coal supplied by Capt.
Clark. I am satisfied the prisoners were as comfortable as
could be.

S. E. CRAIGE,

Captain and A. Q. M.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June aist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Captain G. S. CLARKE, recalled: —

I have purchased and used for the prisoners about one
thousand tons of coal during the winter. I would say in
my judgment, that the barracks were sufficiently warm
during the season requiring fires. I was Quartermaster
here, as well as Commissary, until Capt. Craige assumed
the Quartermaster's Department.

The destitute prisoners were supplied with sufficient
clothing during the time I acted as Quartermaster.

GILBERT S. CLARK.

Attest :

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

Captain GEORGE "W. AHL, sworn and examined: —

My rank is Captain, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General
for about six months, and Commissary of Prisoners for
about a year and a half.

Q. Can you state whether the rations issued to prisoners
at this post were actually given them in full ?

A. To the best of my knowledge and belief they were.

Q. Were the rations issued sufficient for their subsistence ?

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 213

had they at any time saved any rations, and was there any
waste of their rations at any time ?

A. The rations issued to them were at all times sufficient
for their subsistence ; and sometimes greatly in excess of
what they could eat. In policing their barracks sometime
ago we tore up the lower bunk boards, under which we
found about eight (8) barrels of hard bread and meat, which
they had secreted there, because there was more than they
could eat. At that time we had only about three thousand
prisoners here.

According to official monthly reports made to the Com
missary-General of prisoners, there were at this post in
July, 1863, 8,982 prisoners, of whom 111 died during the
month.

August, 1863, 8,822 prisoners, of whom 169 died.

September, 1863, 6,490 " " 327 "

October, 1863,2,987 " " 377 "

November, 1863, 2,822 " " 156 "

December, 1863, 2,765 " " 82 «

January 1864,2,600 u " 78 "

February, 1864,2,655 " " 42 "

March, 1864,5,712 " " 62 "

April, 1864, 6,149 " " 74 "

May, 1864,8,126 " " 62 "

ToJune21, 1864, 8,536 " " 42 "

The greater mortality during the summer and fall months
of 1863, was attributable to the following causes: Small
pox ; the majority of the prisoners not having been vacci
nated before they came here, and those who were vacci
nated had been vaccinated with impure matter; at all
events, the vaccination resulted in breaking out over their
body in sores ; and from the prostrated condition of the
prisoners from Yicksburg, a great many of whom had to be
carried, on their arrival here, from the boat to the hospital,
and many of whom represented that they had been limited
to half and quarter rations of an inferior quality during the

214 APPENDIX.

siege of Vicksburg. Many died also from wounds received
in different engagements. Many, when brought here, were
suffering from chronic diarrhoea and other diseases. The
general effect of our treatment of the prisoners at this post
has resulted in great benefit to their physical condition. In
reference to vaccination, being desirous of obtaining the
true cause of its bad effects on their system, I inquired of
them (the prisoners) the cause of it ; they stated that they
had been vaccinated by their own men with impure matter.

GEORGE W. AHL,

Captain and A. A. A. G. and Commissary of Prisoners.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June zist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

U. S. Commissioner.

Lieutenant A. G. WOLF, sworn and examined: —

I am a Lieutenant in charge of prisoners at Fort Dela
ware; have been here since 23d September, 1862; have
had charge of the prisoners about eight months.

The order is that the men shall be sent out every day for
air. The barracks are then entirely cleansed out. At one
time we turned the prisoners out, and found enough of
crackers to have paved the barracks two crackers deep,
and they are an average of five hundred feet. They had
stowed and concealed them away in various places. As a
general thing, when the barracks were cleaned out, there
were always a number of rations, bread and meat, found
stowed away. "We have always found a quantity of blan
kets and clothing stowed away under the floor during the
winter season. We have allowed men two blankets a piece,
and when they were delicate, three blankets and an over
coat.

They are allowed to bathe in the river twice a week.
We have to take a guard to get some of them to go out to
bathe. We issue a regular prisoner's ration of soap ; wo

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 215

have found as much as ten pounds secreted in their haver
sacks.

They had five stoves within five hundred feet during
winter, and were warm enough in their barracks.

There has never been an order to fire at any man look
ing out the windows, and no man has ever been fired at for
looking out ; there have been five men shot ; three killed „
and two wounded here, since this has been a prison. One
killed while in the river making his escape, about one hun
dred yards from the shore, at night ; one killed for attempt
ing to climb over the fence towards the river ; one man was
wounded — he died since — for committing a nuisance on the
bank contrary to rule, and was ordered by the sentry to
stop. He called the sentry " a Yankee son of a bitch," and
would not stop. The ball wounded two men. The other
one said that he deserved all he got. Another was killed
accidentally, by the sentry shooting at one who was com
mitting a nuisance, and who would not obey the order.
These orders are to prevent nuisances occurring in the
barracks, which would be destructive of health and cleanli
ness. Even with these rules, nuisances are not unfrequently
committed.

Special orders No. 157 are the same as those I refer to,
and are as follow :

SPECIAL ORDER No. 157.

HEADQUARTERS, FORT DELAWARE,
June 1, 1864

The officer of the Guard must read and explain these
orders to each relief of his Guard regularly before having
it posted.

I. No sentinel must communicate with nor allow any
person to communicate with any of the prisoners, nor per
mit any of the prisoners to go outside of the limits of their

216 APPENDIX.

barracks, without the permission of the Commanding
General or the officers in charge of the prisoners.

II. It is the duty of the sentinel to prevent the prisoners
from escaping, or cutting, defacing or in any way damaging
any of the Government property, or from committing any
"Nuisance" in or about their barracks, or from using any
abusive or insolent LANGUAGE towards them, and from any
violation of good order.

Should the sentinel detect any prisoner in violating
these instructions, he must order him three distinct times to
halt ! and if the prisoner obeys the order, the sentinel must
call for the Corporal of the Guard, and have the prisoner
placed in arrest — but should the prisoner fail to halt, when
so ordered, the sentinel must enforce his order by bayonet or
ball

III. The sentinels are required to exercise the utmost
vigilance, and to exact from prisoners a strict compliance
with these instructions, and must always be duly impressed
with the nature and extent of their responsibility.

By command of BRIG.-GEN'L SCHOEPF.

(Signed) GEO. W. AHL,

Captain and A. A. A. G.

They exist in all prisons.

A. G. WOLF,

Lieutenant and Commissary of Prisoners.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June aist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 217

Surgeon H. E. SILLIMAN, sworn and examined: —

I have been in charge here as Surgeon-in-Charge of the
books since July, 1863. The condition of the prisoners,
upon arriving here, was that generally of men suffering
from over-exertion and bad diet; chronic diarrhoea and
scurvy prevalent among them ; they improved very mate- '
rially shortly after their arrival here.

The sanitary conditions here were such as to be condu
cive to their health. Prisoners who arrived here from
Yicksburg and the Mississippi Valley were laboring under
miasmatic influences, under which a great number of them
died. From their condition, I should judge they had been
on a diet of salt meat. Some of the men arrived here in a
good condition of health. The men from Gettysburg were
generally in good health, though they soon broke down,
showing the effect of their violent exertions ; they rallied
again under good food and good clothing. The condition
of the men brought here within the last few months,
captured in Virginia, has been better than that of those
brought here heretofore. A large number of the men had
never been vaccinated, and many others imperfectly so.
The scars were imperfect, in my judgment. They vacci
nated themselves in the barracks with pen-knives, after
their arrival here, producing diseases of the blood and
skin. In my experience, the proportion of the unvacci-
nated men, among the prisoners, is far greater than in our
own army, for I have never known of an unvaccinated
man in our army.

I consider the amount of food and clothing allowed to
prisoners here, during the past winter, reasonably sufficient
for the preservation nf life and health.

I don't know of any man who has suffered from a wanl
of^bod or clothing, and unable to procure them, on propel
representations.

I do know of one man who was brought into the hospital
last winter, during a severe spell, severely frost-bitten. I

218 APPENDIX.

don't know how this occurred. This is the only instance
that has come to my knowledge.

The men sent away from here were sometimes sick and
sometimes well ; they were in general well ; and the physi
cal condition of the well men was good. The sick were
sent away under special orders, going as sick.

The order was from Surgeon-General Hammond ; it was
not an order to send away any who could not bear the
journey ; it was left to my discretion who to send away,
and I sent none who I believed would die on the passage ;
I was careful about that. (

I think the treatment of the sick prisoners here is equal
to the treatment of our own sick men anywhere.

I expend as much as $1,700 per month, saved from the
surplus rations, on delicacies for the sick.

H. E. SILLIMAN,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June 2ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JK.,

United States Commissioner.

Lieutenant A. G. WOLF, recalled: —

I am acquainted with the case of frost-bite spoken of by
Dr. Silliman. The prisoners reported to me that the man
was taken with cramps in the barracks ; they exposed his
person and rubbed him to ease the pain, and found that
they could do no good, and then brought him to the hospi
tal in that condition of exposure. I attributed the frost
bite to these circumstances.

A. G. WOLF,

Lieutenant and Commanding Prison.

Attest, %

D, P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 219

Surgeon COLIN ARROTT; sworn and examined: —

I am acting assistant-surgeon at this place ; have been
here over two years. When I first came here the water
used for drinking was rain water ; and after I came here
the water was brought from the Brandy wine, in casks, by
sloops. I cautioned all the prisoners that came here against
drinking the water of the Island, as it was unhealthy. They
would frequently persist in doing it, although there was
fresh water provided for them. They did this to save them
selves from the trouble of going about a hundred yards for
fresh water. They would dig little wells for the water, a
.few inches deep; I think that water produced sickness,
though I frequently cautioned them, and at different times.
This was two years ago.

For a year the water has been brought here in large
quantities by boats. There are 30,000 gallons of water
brought here now a day, besides what rain water is caught.
There is now, and always has been, as far as I know, a full
supply of water on the Island.

COLIN AKROTT,

Acting Assistant Surgeon.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June zist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

I certify that the foregoing testimony, taken at Fort Del
aware, June 21st, 1864, was taken and reduced to writing
by me, in the presence of the respective witnesses and by
them sworn to and subscribed in my presence, at the time
and in the manner set forth.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

U. S. Commissioner*

220 APPENDIX.

DAVID'S ISLAND, NEW YORK.

Testimony taken at De Camp General Hospital, U,
S. A., David's Island, June i6th, 1864.

COMMISSIONER PRESENT :
MB. WILKINS.

Deposition of AUGUSTUS VAN COKTLANDT, Acting Assistant
Surgeon U. S. A.

I was on duty in this hospital when the last load of rebel
prisoners arrived, during the latter part of July, 1863.
Some were lodged in pavilions, and some in tents, which
were in excellent order.

The prisoners had not been robbed or deprived of any
of their private property, so far as my knowledge extends;
on the contrary, the majority of patients under my charge
possessed money, brought with them from the South to the
hospital, and were never deprived of it.

They came in a filthy, horrible condition. Their dirty
garments were removed and burned, and new hospital cloth
ing furnished them at the expense of the United States Gov
ernment, after they had been thoroughly cleansed and
washed.

Their physical condition was bad in the extreme when
they arrived; they were run down, and were the worst
body of wounded men it has ever been my lot to see.

I had ten tents under my charge, which contained ninety

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 221

four rebel patients and nurses. The tents were twenty-eight
by fifteen feet. The pavilions were one hundred and ninety-
six feet in length, twenty-three feet in breadth, and twelve
feet in height to the plate, and contained not more than
eighty patients.

During the ensuing cold weather the prisoners were re
moved to the pavilions, and had all necessary fuel and
warm clothing. I have never heard of any of the prisoners
suffering from cold or exposure, so as to require medical
treatment, nor of any having been frozen to death.

They were allowed, for exercise and recreation, the whole
island inside of the line of sentries, having the same liberty,
rations, diet and medical treatment, as the Federal sick and
wounded have always had.

No rebel prisoners were ever fired upon, shot, or wounded,
when on the Island, from any apprehension of their escap
ing, or from any other cause.

The supply of drinking water was of a good quality and
abundant; and ice was supplied with liberal profusion, and
sufficiency of water for washing, with plentiful allowances
of soap, as well as combs, for their own private use.

The physical condition of the rebel prisoners, upon leav
ing the island, was very good, except a few cases of unhealed
wounds.

AUG. VAN COETLANDT, M. D.

Sworn to before me,

WARREN WEBSTER,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge of Hospital.

222 APPENDIX.

Deposition of GEORGE W. EDWARDS; Acting Assistant Sur
geon U. S. A.

I was stationed at this hospital when the rebel prisoners
arrived, about the middle of July, 1863. They were placed
in tents and pavilions, which had just been vacated by Union
soldiers to make room for them. The dimensions of the
tents were twenty-eight feet by fifteen feet ; the pavilions
were one hundred and ninety-six feet in length, twenty-
three feet in breadth, and twelve feet in height to the plate ;
not sealed over, and with numerous ventilators on the
ridges. The tents were arranged to contain ten patients
each, the pavilions to contain eighty; the number of pa
tients never exceeded these numbers in either.

The prisoners had not been robbed by our men, as most
of them had money, some had gold, greenbacks, and Con
federate paper.

They were in rags, barefooted and bareheaded when
they came, were frightfully filthy, and covered with vermin.
Within three or four hours after their arrival, they had all
been stripped of their rags, washed, and after being sup
plied with clean linen, placed in clean and well-aired beds.

Full suits of clothing, consisting of coats, pants, drawers,
shirts, shoes aud stockings, were subsequently issued to
them by the United States Quartermaster. To distinguish
them from our own soldiers, the buttons and six inches of
the skirt of the coat were cut off.

Those who remained during the cold weather were
abundantly supplied with fuel and warm clothing, and none
required medical or surgical treatment in consequence of
exposure to the cold ; none were frozen to death.

They were allowed to go fishing or clamming, as they
pleased, when they first came, till several escaped, when a
line of sentinels was placed around the island upon the
beach,, inside of which they enjoyed all the privileges al
lowed to the Federal patients in the hospital.

None of the rebels were ever shot at, wounded or killed
in any way while upon the island.

TREATMENT OF EEBEL PRISONERS. 223

They receive medical and surgical treatment in all re
spects equal to that of Union soldiers. Nine-tenths of them
were suffering from wounds. The mortality was not large,
most of the deaths occurring from the severity of the
wounds. They received the same rations and diet as our
own patients.

The paper hereto attached, marked (A,)* formed the Diet
Table during the time which the rebel prisoners were on the
island. They had an abundance of good drinking water,
with ice, an unlimited supply for bathing, plenty of soap,
towels, combs, &c., &c., for their own comfort and cleanliness.

When the prisoners were removed, they were in excel
lent bodily condition, though many had not entirely
recovered from their wounds ; the majority of the prisoners
left the island during the month of October, 1863. At one
time there were about two thousand five hundred rebel
prisoners upon the island.

I have been upon the medical staff of this hospital since
its opening, in May, 1862, and it has been occupied by Union
patients, both prior and subsequent to its occupation by
rebel prisoners.

G. W. EDWARDS.

Sworn to before me.

WARREN WEBSTER,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge of Hospital.

DE CAMP GENERAL HOSPITAL,
DAVID'S ISLAND, NEW YORK.
June 11th, 1864

We, the undersigned, Acting Assistant Surgeons U. S. A.,
employed in De Camp General Hospital, depose and say,
that we have heard read the depositions of Augustus Yan
Cortland and George W. Edwards, Acting Assistant Sur-

* The paper (A) here referred to, is the " DIET TABLE FOR GENERAL
HOSPITALS, UNITED STATES ARMY."

224 APPENDIX.

geons U. S. A., of tMs date, and from our personal knowl
edge and actual experience confirm all that the said afnda
vits set forth as to the treatment of rebels, sick and wounded,
during their confinement in this hospital.

We further depose that we have been members of the
Medical Staff in this hospital, during, and subsequent to its
occupation by rebel prisoners.

The Medical Staff numbered twenty-three Acting Assist
ant Surgeons, while the prisoners were on the island.

We would further depose that there were ample provi
sions of nurses ; one nurse to every ten patients in the hos
pitals ; and that the following provisions were made for the
calls of nature : each pavilion was furnished with from two
to four water-closets, and chairs and bed-pans were furnished
for patients unable to reach the water-closet. The tents
were furnished with bed-pans and chairs. Ample structures
were made upon the beach for those able to walk.

JOHN HOWE, M. D., Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A.,
further deposes and says, that on or about the first day of
August 1863, while attending his duties in Pavilion 14.

there was then and there present, the Rev. Brooks,

Alabama Chaplain in the Confederate service, and prisoner
of war, who addressed the rebel prisoners and said to them,
" Well, boys, keep up your spirits, for you are getting a great
deal better treatment here, than you would get at home."

JOHN HOWE, M. D.,

Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A.

WILLIAM BADGEK,
GEORGE BADGER,
A. 1ST. BROCKWAY,
WM. C. FRYER.

Sworn to before me,

WARREN WEBSTER,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in Charge of Hospital.

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 225

Deposition of the Rev. ROBERT LOWRY, Chaplain, U. S. A.

Minister of Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of New

York, under Bishop Potter.

Entered upon my duties here 4th July, 1862, and have
continued here until this time.

In my intercourse with the prisoners, I was guided sys
tematically by the same rules with which I visited Union
soldiers. The prisoners were equally well lodged with our
own men. I remarked at the time of their arrival how neat
and comfortable a provision had been made in the tents and
pavilions for their comfort, with an ample supply of beds
and bedding.

I met the first transport at Philadelphia, and returned on
the same with them to David's Island. The prisoners were
in a most filthy condition, miserably clad, and covered with
vermin. Each man received a bath and was immediately
furnished with clean clothing, the old clothing being re
moved and burned. In the prosecution of my duties I was
frequently present at their dinners, which were ample,
superior, both as respects quantity and quality, to anything
I have ever seen in hospital diet. The diet furnished to
them was superior even to that of our own patients. This
resulted from the fact that many little luxuries were fur
nished by private donation. There were other comforts
and conveniences afforded them beyond those of food,
clothing, and shelter.

A library of two thousand volumes, that had been pre
viously used by our own soldiers, was at once thrown open
to them, and every facility afforded for the use of the
volumes. Being present as librarian, and taking each
man's name as he received his book, the library was used
by them far more than by our own people. As had been
my practice, I went through the tents and pavilions with
bibles and prayer books, making the special inquiry to
every man, " Are you supplied ?" And furnishing books in
all cases where they were required.

Religious services were held in the chapel twice every

lo

226 APPENDIX.

Sunday, and two or three times during the week, at which
they were invited to be present, and attended in such num
bers that the chapel was always crowded, the capacity of the
chapel being three hundred, and on some occasions numbers
stood at the windows during the entire seryice.

I was supervisor of the post office, and officially appointed
to examine the contents of letters, which were mailed and
forwarded on my approval. Paper and envelopes were fur
nished gratuitously, and post stamps when needed, were
supplied to the extent of one hundred and fifty dollars, to
my knowledge, gratuitously. From three hundred to five
hundred letters were forwarded daily after the first arrival
of prisoners.

The common expression in their letters as to their con
dition was that "we have everything we need, and could
not be better off."

Funeral service was always performed over the dead,
using the service of the Protestant Episcopal Church over
the remains of the dead. A record was uniformly made
of the names, company, and regiment, of the deceased, and
date of death. This record was made independently of a
formal Hospital register.

EOBEKT LOWRY,

Chaplain U. S. A.
Sworn to before me,

WAEEEN WEBSTEE,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge.

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 227

JOHNSON'S ISLAND,

(NEAR SANDUSKY, OHIO.)

Testimony taken at Washington, D. C., June 3, 1864.
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

MR. WILKINS, DR. WALLACE, MR. WALDEN.

Surgeon CHARLES P. WILSON, examined: —

I was Acting Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. 1
was stationed at Johnson's Island, three miles from San-
dusky, from the last week of October, 1863, to the last week
of January, 1864. My duty was to attend to our men
guarding the rebel prisoners, and also to attend at the
Smallpox Hospital for rebel prisoners, and at the Post Hos
pital for our garrison ; my position enabled me to see the
general condition and the general treatment of the prisoners.

There could not be a more healthy or pleasant place than
this island. Kelly's Island, a popular place of resort for
pleasure and health, is about six miles from this island, and
QO better for these objects.

The buildings were good ; in good order ; they were new ;
say two years old ; convenient and comfortable ; they might
have been better ventilated ; the buildings were frame, and
lined inside ; they had rows of bunks, as in barracks, in
three tiers — -just the same as our men have in most of our
barracks.

The rebel prisoners all had blankets, either their own or
furnished by the United States Government, and were gene
rally furnished with clothing by the United States Govern
ment — pants, shoes, hats, blouses, and underclothing and

228 , APPENDIX.

stockings, — until a snort time before I left, then these were
furnished to those only who actually needed them.

I have several times seen of an afternoon boxes carted
in, and these articles distributed from the boxes among the
prisoners, according to their wants.

I was there in extremely cold weather, when the supplies
were teamed on the ice from the main land to Johnson's
Island, a distance of three miles ; the prisoners were pro
vided against this severe weather by wood hauled every day
for their use in stoves.

I consider that the wood was sufficient for comfortable
supply, except for, say two or possibly three days, when the
teams were engaged in bringing lumber and provisions for
additiocal troops ; during these two or three clays the supply
of wood was scant, and was the subject of complaint.

No prisoners were frost-bitten or came under medical
treatment from cold and exposure, except some who at
tempted to escape. They all fared as well in this respect as
our men do in barracks generally.

The sick men all had ticks filled with straw as beds ; the
hospital building for the rebels was lined and plastered.

There was abundant supply of good water from the lake
by pipes and pumps ; when the pipes froze they could go to
the lake, under guard, and supply themselves, bringing it
up in suitable vessels ; they always had plenty of water to
wash themselves and their clothes.

The rations of the prisoners were the same as those
furnished to our own soldiers according to regulations.

The prisoners did not consume all their rations, for I
know that there was a large prison fund formed from the
savings.

During the hours of the day the prisoners were allowed
to be in the open air as much as they pleased ; there was
abundant room for them all to take as much exercise as
they required for health ; they played games in the open
air.

The surgeon in charge treated the sick rebels as he

TBEATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 229

treated our sick; there was no difference at all, except
when special articles of diet were sent to our men by their
friends.

Some four hundred and sixty rebel privates were sent to
some other prison in November ; most of them had been on
Johnson's Island for some months ; when they left, taking
them as a whole, their physical condition was excellent.

You could not have found the same number of prisoners
anywhere in better condition.

C. P. WILSON,

Surgeon 13 8th Regiment O. N. G.

Sworn and subscribed before me, at
Washington, D. C., this $d day
of June, 1864.

M. H. N. KENDIG,

Notary Public.

Depositions taken at Sandusky, Ohio.

Major T. WOODBRIDGE, M. D., Surgeon in charge, sworn
and examined: —

Q. "What has been and is now your position in the army
of the United States?

A. I am Surgeon of the 128th Eegiment 0. V. I., and
Surgeon in charge of the Depot for Prisoners of War on
Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio.

Q. How long have you held this position ?

A. Since the establishment of the prison. I came to the
island in February, 1862. The first prisoners came in April,
1862. I have had medical supervision of the prison from
then until now.

Q. What is your Dpinion of Johnson's Island as to health
and salubrity ?

230 APPENDIX.

A . I believe Johnson's Island to be as favorable to health
as the climate of Newport or Saratoga in summer, and as
that of Cincinnati or Dayton in winter. The latitude is
about 41J0 North, longitude 82° 42' West. Height of lake
above tide-water five hundred and sixty-five feet. The
island rests upon a bed of Devonian limestone, which rises
gradually from the shore to the centre, terminating in a
ridge of limestone rock, thus affording complete natural
drainage. The water used is principally that of the bay,
which comes in fresh constantly from Lake Erie.

Q. What diseases, if any, are peculiar to Johnson's Island
or the neighboring islands in Lake Erie ?

A. I know of no diseases peculiar to those islands or preva
lent in them. Johnson's Island is a small one, containing only
about three hundred acres of land, and previous to the estab
lishment of the prison, if I am correctly informed, was not
inhabited by more than one family at a time; but the
Peninsula, with Kelley's Island and the Put-in-Bay Islands,
have been inhabited for between thirty and forty years, I
have conversed frequently with some of the oldest citizen?
of the peninsula and the islands, but have never heard them
speak of any liability to diseases, but such as is common to
other parts of Ohio.

Q. Is there any truth in the assertion made by rebel
authorities that residence on the island for a few months
produces in a great number of prisoners dangerous and fatal
pulmonary disorders?

A. Not the slightest.

Q. What has been the rate of mortality among the
prisoners?

A. In 1862 — from April to December inclusive — the
number of deaths was thirty-seven. During the year 1863
measles and smallpox were brought into the prison by
prisoners sent from Alton and other prisons, and many
wounded at the battles of Gettysburg, augmenting our mor
tality list above what it would otherwise have reached. The
number of deaths for 1863 was ninety-seven. This makes

TKEATMENT OF REBEL PEISONERS. 231

from the time of the first arrival of prisoners in April, 1862,
to January 1st, 186-i, (twenty-one months,) a mortality list
of one hundred and thirty-four, out of an aggregate of six
thousand four hundred and ten, received into the prison in
that time. As there were exchanges and removals of
prisoners, the number in prison never exceeded twenty-
seven hundred at any one time.* Many of the prisoners
came here with health impaired, by bad diet, exposure, and
often by wounds received in battle. The bill of mortality
owes little to the climate of the post, when we consider that
men in prison, away from home and friends, are weighed
down by anxieties and despondency, thus making the treat
ment of disease more difficult.

Q. Please state the number of prisoners now at the post ?

A. About two thousand three hundred and six.f

Q. Please state the number of deaths during the past two
months.

A. In the month of May there were five deaths; in the
month of June only one.

Q. What accommodations are provided for the care of
the sick ?

A. The hospital building is one hundred and twenty- six
by thirty feet, with a transverse hall six and a half feet wide
in the centre. There are four wards, each forty-eight by
thirty feet. There are eighty beds in all, giving to each
patient, when the wards are full, seven hundred and twenty
cable feet of atmospheric air. The dispensary is furnished
with all the medicines and stimulants furnished to hospitals
for our own soldiers, and more than double the quantity is
used by prisoners than by the same number of our troops.
I have always had the assistance of competent Confederate
surgeons, who cheerfully aid by giving their time to this
duty. When there are no commissioned surgeons in prison,

* The average number of prisoners for the entire of the year 1863,
was eleven hundred and fifteen.

f In May, 1864, there were two thousand one hundred and thirty-
four, and in June, 1864, two thousand three hundred and nine.

232 APPENDIX.

there are surgeons holding commissions in the line who do
this duty. The cooking for the hospital is done by the
most experienced and skilful cooks we can find in the
prison.

In addition to rations, the sick are furnished with flour,
potatoes, corn-meal, milk, butter, eggs, chickens, tea, &c., &c.
The bedding is amply sufficient to make each patient com
fortable. A pest-house is built outside the prison, to which
all cases of smallpox, measles or other contagions are
removed on first development.

J. WOODBMDGE,

Surgeon izSth O. V. I.

Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before
me at Sandusky, Ohio, this fth day of July,
1864.

[SEAL.] HENEY C. BUSH,

Notary Public in and for Erie County, Ohio.

Surgeon EVEETMAN, examined: —

Q. What position do you now hold at Depot Prisoners of
War?

A. I act as chief medical officer of United States forces
and military prison.

Q. How long have you held that position ?

A. Since the 17th of May, 1864.

Q. What is your opinion of the general healthfulness and
salubrity of Johnson's Island ?

A. The general condition of the troops and prisoners of
war at this post has been unusually good and healthy. The
hospital in the prison, during the past two months, scarcely
ever had more than thirty inmates among an aggregate
number of two thousand one hundred prisoners of war.
The prevailing diseases, during this time, were diarrhoea,
acute and chronic ; a few cases of dysentery, and a small
number of intermittent fever. I consider the island as
healthy as any locality I have ever visited.

Q. Have you known any undue tendency to pulmonary

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 233

disorders on this or the adjoining islands, or any part of the
surrounding country?

A. I have not, at least not during the time that I have
been stationed here. In the early part of the spring there
were some few cases of pneumonia and bronchitis, but not
any more so than would be expected even in a climate
further south than this.

Q. What proportion of pulmonary complaints furnished
in your hospital reports ?

A. For the past six months the ratio has been as follows :

January, . . 61 sick treated, 10 pulmonary diseases.

February, . 66 5

March, . . 46 " 7

April, . . 91 1

May, . . 62 2

June, . . 80 5

Total, . . -109 30

Q. "What is the appearance of the prisoners generally at
this time ?

A. Their appearance is very good. The prisoners con
fined at this depot are all rebel officers, but have very little
pride to keep themselves or their quarters clean.

Q. Do the prisoners seem to gain or decline in health
after their arrival here ?

A. As a general thing their health improves. Most of
the prisoners are robust and in good physical condition.

HENEY EVEBTMAN,

Surgeon U. S. Vols., Chief Medical Officer.

Subscribed in my presence and sworn
to before me at Sandusky, Ohio,
this fth day of July, 1864.

[SEAL.] HENRY C. BUSH,

Notary Public in and for Erie County, Ohio.

234 APPENDIX.

Deposition taken at Kelley's Island.

GEORGE C. HUNTINGTON examined:

Q. How long have you resided on Kelley's Island?

A. Since the Fall of 1838, with the exception of one year,
from the fall of 1844 to the fall of 1845. Have been ac-
quainted on the Island since 1835.

Q. What means have yon of furnishing a statement oi
the character of the climate and sanitary condition of
Kelley's Island, and the neighboring islands, and the sur
rounding country?

A. I have been in the habit, during the entire period of
my residence on the island, of noting extremes of tempera
ture, and such casual phenomena as would, in my opinion,
have any bearing on the general health of the place; and
lor more than five years past, have made three records daily
of everything connected with the changes of the weather,
in the manner prescribed by, and under the direction of, the
Smithsonian Institution.

Q. Please state the latitude, longitude, and height above
tide-water of Kelley's Island — its population, and the gene
ral character of the island for salubrity?

A. My place of observation is in latitude 41° 35' 44" K,
longitude 82° 42' 82" W. The level of Lake Erie is 565
feet above tide-water, and the island may in some places
rise fifty or sixty feet above the level of the lake ; but I
think the mean height of the island would not vary much
from twenty-five feet above the level of the lake. The
population, in April last, was six hundred and fifty-one. As
to the salubrity of the climate, the matter will be best deter
mined by the statistics given in answer to the next question.

TREATMENT OF REBEL PRISONERS. 235

Q. What lias been the per centage of mortality, annually,
on your island ?

A. In answer to this question I give an abstract from the
records of the "Cemetery Association." This association
was organized in May, 1853, since which time the whole
number of interments has been ... 43

From this deduct, lost from vessels and washed ashore, 3
Died in Nashville, from wounds in battle, . . 1

— 4

Whole number of interments in 11 years, . 38

To this add, died here and taken elsewhere for interment, 5

Whole number of deaths in 11 years, . 43

From diseases reported as follows: —

Killed by premature blast 1, drowned 2, . .3

Old age 3, intemperance 1, dropsy 1, .5

Still-born and infants but a few days old, . . 8

Dysentery and summer complaint, . . 9

Inflammation of bowels, . . . .3

Diseases affecting respiratory organs, . . 5

Throat affection, age 76, age 50, . . .2

Fevers, (one contracted in army hospital,) . . 3

Childbirth 1, congestion of brain 1, . .2

Fits 1, not specified 2, . . .3

— 43

The average population of the island for this period of
eleven years has been, as appears by the returns of the
township assessor, 428, which would give an annual mor
tality of 3.9 ; but if we deduct casualties 3, still-born and
infants, which, although born alive, had not vitality enough
fairly to commence the journey of life, 8; and one from
disease contracted in hospital in Nashville, 1, it will reduce
the number of deaths properly chargeable to disease and
old age, to thirty-one, or an annual mortality of 2.82 in a
population of 428. This would be an annual mortality
from all causes of one per cent., and from disease, in-

236 APPENDIX.

eluding old age, an annual mortality of less than seventy -
three-hundredths of one per cent. (0.724.) By comparing
these results with the tables of mortality in different sec
tions of the country, the salubrity of our climate and the
immunity from the ordinary diseases of the country en
joyed by the inhabitants of this island as compared with
other localities, may be easily deduced.

Q. What is the distance of Kclley's from Johnson's
Island, and is there any difference in the physical or
sanitary peculiarities of the two islands?

A. Johnson's Island is about seven miles nearly due
south from Kelley's Island, and I am not aware of any
natural causes which should make any difference in the
salubrity of climate or sanitary condition of the two locali
ties, unless the difference in the water between Sandnskv
Bay and the open lake (the latter being considered rather
more free from impurities) might be considered a difference,
so far as it is used for culinary purposes or as a beverage.

Q. Is there any undue tendency to pulmonary disorders
among the inhabitants of these islands ?

A. By reference to the answer to a preceding question, it
will be seen that the whole number of deaths from diseases
affecting the respiratory organs in a period of eleven years,
and in a population averaging four hundred and twenty-
eight, was but five, and of this number one was a transient
person ; leaving but four cases in eleven years among those
who could be properly called residents.

Q. Has Johnson's Island ever had a bad repute for un-
healthiness ?

A. I have never heard Johnson's Island called unhealthy.

Q. Have you ever known any very fatal diseases among
the inhabitants of Lake Erie?

A. The Asiatic cholera has passed through the lake region
as an epidemic, four times I think, since it first made its
appearance on this continent in 1832. I am not aware of
any other very fatal diseases having prevailed in the lake
region since my first acqanintance with it in 1830.

TKEATMEXT OF REBEL PRISONERS.

STATE OF OHIO,

Erie County.

Before me, the subscriber, a Notary Public, in and for the
County of Erie and State of Ohio, personally came Gr. C.
Huntington, who being duly sworn by me according to law,
deposes and says that the statements above made are com
piled from official and other reliable data, and that they are
true according to his knowledge and belief.

GEO. C. HUNTINGTON.

Subscribed and sworn to before me,
July 4th, A. D. 1864.

[SEAL.] A. S. KELLEY,

Notary Public.

EVIDENCE

REBEL PRISONERS,

RELATING TO

RATIONS, CLOTHING, SHELTER
AND HOSPITAL TREATMENT IN THE REBEL ARMY:

ALSO,

TO THEIR CONDITION AT UNITED STATES STATIONS

FOR

PRISONERS OF

(239)

EVIDENCE

SOLDIERS OF THE REBEL ARMY CONFINED AT UNITED
STATES STATIONS,

Testimony taken at Lincoln Hospital, Washing
ton, D. C., taken June, 4, 1864.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:.

DR. WALLACE, MR. WALDEN.

WILLIAM H. FERGUSON; llth Mississippi infantry;
twenty-six years old ; private in Confederate service three
years ; health good while in service and up to the time of
my capture.

Had walled tents sometimes, and cabins sometimes when
in winter quarters.

Always had this kind of covering except while in active
service ; then we had no tents or cabins, say from first of
May till we go into winter quarters.

We commonly carry one blanket.

Could have more if we wanted it.

Could take captured tents and carry and use them if we
choose.

We were comfortable as far as body clothing and blan-

16 (241)

21:2 APPENDIX.

kets fire concerned ; when one coat or pants wears out we
can get more from our own quartermasters.

A day's ration is one and one-eighth pounds wheat flour
or one and one-fourth pounds corn meal ; one and one-fourth
pounds beef, fresh, (could generally get fresh beef, driving
cattle along with us) or half-pound bacon in place of beef;
we also drew during the first year of war, coffee, sugar, and
rice ; second and third years had no coffee ; sometimes we
could get sugar and rice ; since Christmas last we got coffee
again.

We always had plenty to eat and sometimes more, while
not on campaign ; but on campaign, then we always had
enough, but none to spare.

Since our capture we get enough grub to keep us from
hunger ; we don't suffer ; we have a full allowance ; we are
as well treated as your own men.

I was wounded in my right leg just above the ankle;
healing kindly now.

Kindly treated by the officers and subordinates since our
capture.

I have not been, and never have seen any of our boys
robbed or otherwise ill-treated by the Union men ; I have
seen and heard some occasional rough talk and swearing at
us, but nothing more than that ; this was from a few of the
privates ; not a general rule.

We have had civil talk and argument as a common thing
with the Union soldiers on the subject of the war.

I was captured fifth of May, 1864.

Our food in the Confederate army was of good quality.

Our corn meal that we had was very good; we had
generally white, sometimes yellow meal ; it was bolted or
sifted and of fine grain.

We never had grains of corn or bits of cob in our meal.

WILLIAM H. FEKGUSON,

Company D, nth Mississippi Volunteers.

TESTIMONY OF EEBEL PRISONERS. 243

I have been in the Confederate service two years and six
months ; was captured on fifth of May, 1864. Was wounded
through, the right shoulder and chest. I am improving in
strength ; and I suppose I am gaining flesh, now, though I
am not as strong or fleshy as when I was captured.

I have been present at the statements made by William
H. Ferguson, llth Mississippi Volunteers; I have heard
them all ; I substantiate their accuracy from my experience
and observation as to our condition in the service, though I
was attached to a different corps of the army.

W. 0. QUAELES,

Company H, 3d Alabama Regiment, Infantry.

LARKIN A. GRIFFIN, native of South Carolina ; home in
Florida; belong to 1st South Carolina rifles.

The statement made by William H. Ferguson has been
read and shown to me. It agrees with my observation and
experience except as noted below. I have been in Confed
erate service nearly three years; my health was alwaya
excellent while in the service ; I was well and strong when
wounded and captured ; captured on 12th May, 1864.

During the winter of 1862 and 1863, we had full rations
of bread, but only half rations of bacon for about three
months.

Our corn meal was very finely ground, but the hull was
not sifted out.

In a few isolated cases our captured men were directed
to leave their knapsacks and haversacks behind them ; it
was not a general thing at all.

I never saw nor heard our men sworn at or cursed by
the Union soldiers.

L. A. GEIFFIN.

I have seen and had read to me the statements made by
William H. Ferguson. They are correct as proved by my

244 APPENDIX.

own experience and observation generally. I have been in'
the Confederate service three years ; my health and strength
while in the service was good during the third year ; better
than before.

We had coffee always, except during 1863, up to about
Christmas.

A Union lieutenant once damned me and told me I was
not worthy of a place ; I replied, " I hoped the Lord would
forgive him and make him a better man."

PLEASANT H. EEESB,

Company I, i3th Georgia Regiment.

I have seen and had read to me the statements made by
William H. Ferguson.

They are correct as proved by my own experience and
observation generally ; I have been in the Confederate
service two years ; my health was not very good till this
last winter ; then it was tolerably good ; could do all my
duties. Through last summer we did not draw coffee.

JOSEPH F. DAVIDSON,

Company A, 49th Georgia Regiment.

VIRGIL CARROLL, aged twenty-one ; artillery, Yirginia.

Clothing always good and warm.

Plenty of blankets and good shelter ; shelter tents.

Plenty to eat. Eations — coffee, sugar, bacon, meal, occa
sionally fresh meat, potatoes (Irish), rice, peas, wheat bread.

Always enough ; much as we could consume ; this
especially during the last three months.

Clothing very plentiful.

Fourth year -in the army, never suffered for food or
clothing.

YIRGIL CARROLL.

TESTIMONY OF REBEL PRISONERS. 2-±5

I corroborate the above statement of Yirgil Carroll.

S. P. TWEDY,

Company C, nth Regiment, Virginia.

JOSHUA BARKER, South Carolina, 4th Eifles. I corrobo
rate the above statement of Yirgil Carroll.

JOSHUA BABKEE.

C. A. BOWMAN, North Carolina 32d.

I corroborate the above statement of Yirgil Carroll.

C. A. BOWMAN.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 1 gg
County of Washington, j

Personally appeared before me the within named William
H. Ferguson, W. 0. Quarles, L. A. Griffin, Pleasant H. Eeese,
Joseph F. Davidson, Yirgil Carroll, S. P. Twedy, Joshua
Barker, C. A. Bowman, who being severally sworn, say
that the statements set forth by them are correct and true to
the best of their knowledge and belief. 9

Given under my hand and seal at Washington, D. C., this
fourth day of June, A. D. 1864.

M. H. N. KENDIG,

Notary Public.

246 APPENDIX.

Testimony taken at De Camp General Hospital,
U. S. A., New York, June lyth, 1864.

COMMISSIONER PRESENT :

ME. WILKINS.

Deposition of A. B. BARROJST, of nabersham county,
Georgia, Co. K, 24th Georgia.

I have served in the Confederate service two years and
three days. I arrived at this hospital two days since, and
depose as follows:

That I have served in Virginia, and was wounded at
Cool Arbor.

In the Confederate service we have no tents in the field,
except shelter tents; had one blanket and one oil-cloth,
and lay on the ground.

When wounded, had on a good suit and a change of
clothes, but was not robbed of money, clothes, or anything
which I had when taken captive.

To-morrow being the last day of the week, and the time
for a regular supply of clothing, I expect clean clothes.
Everything was in a proper state for my reception when I
arrived here.

I have been in the Confederate hospitals in the field ;
there were straw beds and a few sheets.

Rations in our service were bacon, half pound, or one
ponnd.of beef; rice, coffee and sugar occasionally ; rations
of bread were six hard biscuits a day, or half pound of
meal or flour a day.

We had a plentiful s "ipply of wood ; our people did not
Buffer from cold.

TESTIMONY OF REBEL PRISONERS. 247

We had medical attendance and medicines as we had
need.

The sick were treated kindly ; there was care as to our
cleanliness ; it was the best ; soap, &c., was issued to us ;
no want of salt.

Since we were captured, we have been treated very well,
just as well as your own boys all the time, and we have no
fault to find. I was told I could not find it so.

I was a farmer; worked on my father's farm. I ex-
pected to be made a conscript, and volunteered in pre-

T£*T»£iT"J C*O

ALBERT B. BARROK

Sworn to before me,

WARREN WEBSTER,

Assistant. Surgeon U. S. A. in charge of Hospital.

Deposition of WILLIAM M. FARMER, native of Franklin
county, Georgia, Company H, 24th Georgia Regi
ment. Business, a farmer.

I entered the service of the Confederate States in
August, 1861 ; was wounded and taken prisoner at Cool
Arbor.

I had on, when wounded, a waistcoat, pants, drawers,
shirt and boots, and not anything was taken away from me
by my captors.

I have needed nothing since captured, having been sup
plied at the landing by the Sanitary Commission. I have
had plenty to eat ; no difference has been made since my
capture between the wounded prisoners and the Federal
wounded.

Rations in our service were bacon, half pound, or half
pound of beef ; rice, coffee and sugar occasionally ; rations
of bread were six hard biscuits a day, or half pound of
meal, or half pound of flour a day. I have always had
food enough of this kind, and while in Virginia the same
as elsewhere.

248 APPENDIX.

In the Confederate service we had good tents in the
winter, but on the march we had only blankets, and no
shelter.

I was in No. 4 General Hospital, Kichmond, during six
teen days, in May 1863 ; we had there as much as we
could eat, with good bedding and sheets as we have here.

"We were better off in the hospital than in the field, as
we had there coffee, sugar and soft bread.

I have had every comfort and attention since I have
been here. The same in all respects as Union soldiers.

WILLIAM M. FAKMEK.

Sworn to before me,

WAEEEN WEBSTEE,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge of Hospital.

I

Deposition of DANIEL F. PEINCE, native of Columbis
county, North Carolina, Company n, 51st Eegiment.

I entered the Confederate service in March, 1862, and
arrived here on the 15th of June last. I was wounded at
the battle of Cool Arbor ; had some extra clothing in a
bundle, which was cut loose by a Federal soldier at my
request.

I lay in a cross fire, and the Federal soldiers dragged
me out of the line of fire into a ditch.

I was treated mighty kindly.

The Federals dressed my wounds, and carried me to
White House Landing, and sent me immediately North
with your own boys.

In the Confederate service we always got one pound of
beef or half a pound of bacon a day ; we had flour or corn
bread alternately, one pound of flour, or one and a quarter
pounds of corn meal ; we had no tea or coffee ; we had salt,
and a gill of peas or rice a day extra.

We had three full suits of clothes a year, if needed ; if

\

TESTIMONY OF EEBEL PRISONERS. 249

more, we drew them and had to pay for them ; ue had
blankets and oil-cloths.

We had tents at stations, bat no tents in the field.

We had overcoats in cold weather made of wool.

I have been supplied with everything I have wanted
since I came here, and see no difference between my treat
ment and that of Union soldiers here in the hospital.

his

DANIEL F. M PRINCE.

mark.
Sworn to before me,

WARREN WEBSTER,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge of Hospital.

Deposition of JOSEPH WHICHARD, Pitt County, North-
Carolina, Company G, 8th Eegiment, North Carolina.

I entered the service in September, 1861, and have served
i% North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and at last in
Virginia, where I was wounded at Cool Arbor.

I had on at the time, pants, shoes, a shirt, and a pair of
drawers ; my clothes were cut off by the surgeon in order to
dress my wounds, and clean ones were afterwards supplied
to me by Union men, both on board the boat and since I
have been here.

I have my jacket, and the rest of my property is on the
little stand at the head of my bed.

A blanket was taken away from me when wounded, but
another has been furnished.

Eations, half pound bacon, and ten hard biscuits daily ;
nothing else to eat ; no rice, peas, or corn meal.

Was in the hospital at Wilmington, North Carolina, a
year ago last May. The fare was tolerable.

On a march, had an abundance, except for a day or two,
when it could not be got.

250 / APPENDIX.

Have had every tiling I want, or have asked for, since I
have been here.

J. WHICHARD.

Sworn to before me,

WARREN WEBSTER,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A. in charge of Hospital.

Deposition of MICHAEL SUTTON, Sampson County, North
Carolina, Company B, 51st Regiment.

I have been nearly three years in the Confederate service ;
this is my second enlistment ; I might have been drafted if
I had not re-enlisted. I served near Charleston, South
Carolina, and was wounded at Cool Arbor; had some
clothes on ; no clothes now except what was furnished me
by Union men ; my own clothes were bloody and had to
be thrown away.

I have not been robbed of anything.

Rations for four days, one pound of bacon, and eighteen
ounces of corn meal ; same weight of flour, but rarely ; had
rice and peas, half pint of rice, and a short half pint of
peas a day. Meal not always good, but lumpy and smelt
bad, and then we were rather stinted for food. Since we
have been 'round Richmond we have been short ; it was
enough to live upon " without enough."

Been in hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina ; " fare
awful hard ; " want of food ; beds, &c., were clean.

Treated well on board the vessel ; the same as Union
soldiers ; kind anJ attentive here ; fared fine whi]e I have
been here ; I have not asked for anything but what I have
got it.

his

MICHAEL [xj SUTTON.

mark.
Swarn to before me,

WARREN WEBSTER,

Assistant Surgeon U. S. A. in charge of Hospital.

TESTIMONY OF REBEL PRISONERS. 251

Testimony taken at Fort Delaware, June 2ist, 1864*
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

DR. WALLACE, JUDGE HARE.

GEORGE S. EOLER, sworn and examined: —

I am from Virginia ; was in the artillery, Swell's Corps ;
I am comfortable here ; I have just come here last evening;
came through Washington, from Spottsylvania Court House,
where I was taken prisoner.

Was kindly treated on the way up ; had been in the
service (Confederate) three months when taken prisoner.

We had plenty of rations from Confederate Government ;
they issued us meal, some flour, bacon, sugar, coffee and
salt ; got meat every day, half pound bacon or a pound of
beef; one and one-eighth pound of meal a day, which
we made up ourselves ; plenty of coffee and sugar all the
winter ; we did not suffer for want of food.

Clothing plenty all winter ; that was the case of the other
men as well as myself; we all had two blankets — some
more ; none I think less than two.

GEOEGE S. EOLER.

Sworn and subscribed before me,
June aist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

HENRY DANIEL, sworn and examined: —

I have been in the Confederate service, infantry, Swell's
corps, for two years ; I came here yesterday ; taken pris
oner at Spottsylvania ; am from Georgia.

252 APPENDIX.

Had plenty to eat while in the Confederate service ; had
half pound of bacon, one and one-eighth pounds of flour
a day during the winter ; in the spring, beef one pound a
day; provisions of good quality; besides this had meal,
Irish potatoes, peas, coffee, and sugar.

Had clothes enough to keep warm ; two blankets, one
overcoat; the army at large had them; nothing to com
plain of in the way of food and clothing.

his

HENKY H DANIEL.

mark.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June 2ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

WILLIAM SHARP, sworn and examined: —

I have been three years in the Confederate service the
9th of next month, in Hill's corps ; I am from Georgia ;
taken prisoner at Spottsylvania.

Treatment was not so good part of the way coming up
here ; they did not give us anything to eat but four crack
ers a day till we got to Belle Plain, to the boat ; after that
we had plenty ; the guards that were with us across to
Belle Plain did not get it either ; the infantry guard that
fetched us to Fredericksburg had no more than we ; the
cavalry brought^ us, I don't know how they fared.

Eations last winter in the Confederate service pretty
good ; got one and one-eighth pounds of flour, one-quarter
pound of salt pork, when we got sugar and coffee ; when
we did not get sugar and coffee, had half a pound salt pork ;
sometimes we drew corn ineal and got a pound and a quar
ter of it ; got some potatoes once and a while ; some beans
occasionally, and some rice.

Clothes were very good last winter ; had one blanket to
each man ; some had two blankets ; had overcoats.

Heard no complaints of want of food or clothing, being
well clothed and fed.

TESTIMONY OF EEBEL PRISONERS. 253

I was as fat as I ever was in my life, when I was taken
at Spottsylvania.

We had tents and cabins built during the winter.

WILLIAM M SHAEP.

nark.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June 2ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

J. S. MOORE, sworn and examined: —

I have been in the Confederate service nearly three
years. Taken prisoner near Spottsylvania Court House;
was treated tolerably well on the way up here ; did not get
quite enough to eat.

Plenty to eat last winter and spring in the Confederate
service ; got meal, flour, bacon, a quarter of a pound of
bacon a day, and one and one-quarter pounds of meal,
sometimes sugar and coffee and potatoes; did not get
beans ; got no fresh meat last spring. Was in Hill's corps.

Had plenty of clothing ; one blanket a piece ; overcoats ;
some had two blankets.

We could not carry more than one blanket a piece ;
could have had more if we had chosen to carry them.

Sometimes we threw them away.

I came from Mississippi.

Sometimes drew flour, one pound, instead of meal;
never got any more bacon than at first; had plenty to eat
all the time ; generally had coffee on hand all the time ;
used to have peas last fall ; was as well fed, with the ex
ception of coffee, last winter as before.

JOHN S. MOOEE.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June 2ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner,

25-i APPENDIX.

L. S. CREWS, sworn and examined:

I entered the Confederate service last December. I was
taken prisoner near Spottsylvania Court House ; came from
Virginia ; in Swell's corps ; well treated coming up here ;
got more than I could eat, for I was sick; they all got
plenty coming up here, as far as I know.

Eations last winter in our own army, were tolerable ;
was on corn meal principally through the winter ; got one
and one-quarter pound of corn meal a day, half pound of
bacon ; sometimes molasses and potatoes ; some fish, some
sugar and coffee ; drawed a little rice ; got no fresh meat ;
had a little last December; had enough food to satisfy
hunger.

The men were clothed tolerable well — all of the men
had not blankets ; some had thrown them away ; it was so
with the overcoats. I was conscripted.

his

L. S XI CKEWS.

mark.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June 2ist, 1864..

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

E. D. BENEFIELD, sworn and examined: —

Taken prisoner near Spottsylvania ; was well treated, as
well as could be expected on my way up here.

Got about enough to eat in the Confederate service — one
and one quarter pounds of meal, and one-quarter pound of
bacon ; got some sugar, some potatoes, rice and coffee ; no
beans or peas ; some sugar ; allowance of bacon the same
all the time ; I don't recollect drawing any fresh meat ; got
flour sometimes.

Got tolerable plenty of clothes ; all had plenty of blank
ets ; some overcoats.

The men did not suffer, as I know of, from cold ; have

V '

TESTIMONY OF REBEL PRISONERS. 255

been in the service since February, 1861. Was in Swell's
corps.

E. D. BENEFIELD,

Company A, 37th Georgia.

Sworn to and subscribed before me,
June 2ist, 1864.

D. P. BROWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

I certify that the foregoing testimony, taken at Fort Del
aware, June 21st, 1864, was taken and reduced to writing
by me, in the presence of the respective witnesses, and by
them sworn to and subscribed in my presence, at the time
and in the manner set forth.

D. P. BBOWN, JR.,

United States Commissioner.

SUPPLEMENT.

SUFFERINGS OF THE PRISONERS AT ANDERSONVILLE, GA,

MEMORIAL FROM THE PRISONERS

TO THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

LETTER OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, UNITED STATES

COMMISSIONER OF EXCHANGE, TO COLONEL OULD,

CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONER.

17 (257)

ACCOUNT

OF THE

SUFFERINGS OF UNION PRISONERS OF WAR,

At Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Ga.

From the Sanitary Commission Bulletin.

The following statement was drawn up for the Commis
sion and sworn to by the parties signing it. They were
exchanged on the 16th of August, and with three others
were appointed by their companions in prison as a deputa
tion to see President Lincoln in their behalf.

Deposition of PRIVATE TRACY:—

I am a private in the 82d New York Kegiment of Volun
teers, Company G. Was captured with about eight hundred
Federal troops, in front of Petersburg, on the 22d of June,
1864. We were kept at Petersburg two days, at Kichmond,
Belle Isle, three days, then conveyed by rail to Lynchburg.
Marched seventy-five miles to Danville, thence by rail to
Andersonville, Georgia. At Petersburg we were treated
fairly, being under the guard of old soldiers of an Alabama
regiment ; at Richmond we came under the authority of the
notorious and inhuman Major Turner, and the equally notori
ous Home Guard. Our ration was a pint of beans, four ounces
of bread, and three ounces of meat a day. Another batch

(259)

260 SUPPLEMENT.

of prisoners joining us, we left Bichmond sixteen hundred

strong.

All blankets, haversacks, canteens, money, valuables of
every kind, extra clothing, and in some cases, the last shirt
and drawers had been previously taken from us.

At Lynchburg we were placed under the Home Guard,
officered by Major and Captain Moffett. The march to Dan
ville was a weary and painful one of five days, under a
torrid sun; many of us falling helpless by the way, and soon
filling the empty wagons of our train. On the first day we
received a little meat, but the sum of our rations for the
five days was thirteen crackers. During the six days by
rail to Andersonville, meat was given us twice, and the daily
ration was four crackers.

On entering the Stockade Prison, we found it crowded with
twenty-eight thousand of our fellow- soldiers. By crowded,
I mean that it was difficult to move in any direction without
jostling and being jostled. This prison is an open space,
sloping on both sides, originally seventeen acres, now
twenty-five acres, in the shape of a parallelogram, without
trees or shelter of any kind. The soil is sand over a bottom
of clay. The fence is made of upright trunks of trees,
about twenty feet high, near the top of which are small
platforms, where the guards are stationed. Twenty feet
inside and parallel to the fence is a light railing, forming
the " dead line," beyond which the projection of a foot or
finger is sure to bring the deadly bullet of the sentinel.

Through the grounds, at nearly right-angles with the
longer sides, runs or rather creeps a stream through an artifi
cial channel, varying from five to six feet in width, the water
about ankle deep, and near the middle of the inclosure,
spreading out into a swamp of about six acres, filled with
refuse wood, stumps, and debris of the camp. Before enter
ing this inclosure, the stream, or more properly sewer,
passes through the camp of the guards, receiving from this
source, and others farther up, a large amount of the vilest
material, even the contents of the sink. The water is of a

PRISON AT ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA,

"~1 DEPOT
_T

GL WINDER S HEADQUARTERS

A A t

A A

HOSPITAL

(261)

SUFFERINGS OF UNION PRISONERS _^T ANDERSON VILLE. 263

dark color, and an ordinary glass would collect a thick
sediment. This was our only drinking and cooking water.
It was our custom to filter it as best we could, through our
remnants of haversacks, shirts and blouses. Wells had
been dug, but the water cither proved so productive of
diarrhoea, or so limited in quantity that they were of no
general use. The cook-house was situated on the stream
just outside the stockade, and its refuse of decaying offal
was thrown into the water, a greasy coating covering much
of the surface. To these was added the daily large amount
of base matter from the camp itself. There was a system
of policing, but the means was so limited, and so large a
number of the men was rendered irresolute and depressed
by imprisonment, that the work was very imperfectly clone.
One side of the swamp was naturally used as a sink, the
men usually going out some distance into the water. Under
the summer sun this place early became corruption too vile
for description, the men breeding disgusting life, so that the
surface of the water moved as with a gentle breeze.

The new-comers, on reaching this, would exclaim : " Is
this hell?" yet they soon would become callous, and enter
unmoved the horrible rottenness. The rebel authorities
never removed any filth. There was seldom any visitation
by the officers in charge. Two surgeons were at one time
sent by President DAVIS to inspect the camp, but a walk
through a small section gave them all the information they
desired, and we never saw them again.

The guards usually numbered about sixty-four — eight at
each end, and twenty -four on a side. On the outside, within
three hundred yards, were fortifications, on high ground
overlooking and perfectly commanding us, mounting twenty-
four twelve-pound Napoleon Parrotts. We were never per
mitted to go outside, except at times, in small squads, to
gather our fire-wood. During the building of the cook
house, a few, who Avere carpenters, were ordered out to
assist.

Our only shelter from the sun and rain and night dews,

26-i SUPPLEMENT.

was what we could make by strtetching over us our coats of
scraps of blankets, which a few had, but generally there
was no attempt by day or night to protect ourselves.

The rations consisted of eight ounces of corn bread, (the
cob being ground with the kernel,) and generally sour; two
ounces of condemned pork, offensive in appearance and
smell. Occasionally, about twice a week, two tablespoonfuls
of rice, and in place of the pork the same amount (two table -
spoonfuls) of molasses was given us about twice a month.*
This ration was brought into camp about four o'clock, P. M.,
and thrown from the wagons to the ground, the men being
arranged in divisions of two hundred and seventy, subdi
vided into squads of nineties and thirties. It was the custom
to consume the whole ration at once, rather than save any
for the next day. The distribution being often unequal
some would lose the rations altogether. We were allowed
no dish or cooking utensil of any kind. On opening the
camp in the winter, the first two thousand prisoners were
allowed skillets, one to fifty men, but these were soon taken
away. To the best of my knowledge, information and
belief, our ration was in quality a starving one, it being
either too foul to be touched or too raw to be digested.

The cook-house went into operation about May 10, prior
to which we cooked our own rations. It did not prove at
all adequate to the work, (thirty thousand is a large town,)
so that a large proportion were still obliged to prepare their

* Our regular army ration is :
£ Ib. Pork or 1£ Ibs. Fresh Beef,
18 ozs. Hard Bread, or 20 ozs. Soft Bread or Flour,
1-10 ft>. Coffee,
1-6 Ib. Sugar,
1-10 ft. Rice, or
1-10 Ib. Beans or Hominy.

Vegetables — Fresh or j

Dessicated,

; Irregularly,

Molasses

Vinegar.

Molasses, i

SUFFERINGS OF UNION PRISONERS AT ANDERSONVILLE. 265

own food. Iii addition to the utter inability of many to do
this, through debility and sickness, we never had a supply
of wood. I have often seen men with a little bag of meal
in hand, gathered from several rations, starving to death for
want of wood, and in desperation would mix the raw ma
terial with water and try to eat it.

Tlie clothing of the men was miserable in the extreme.
Very few had shoes of any kind, not two thousand had
coats and pants, and those were late comers. More than
one-half were indecently exposed, and many were naked.
. The usual punishment was to place the men in the stocks,
outside, near the Captain's quarters. If a man was missing
at roll-call, the squad of ninety to which he belonged was
deprived of the ration. The "dead-line" bullet, already
referred to, spared no offender. One poor fellow, just from
Sherman's army — his name was Roberts — was trying to
wash his face near the " dead-line" railing, when he slipped
on the claj^ey bottom, and fell with his head just outside the
fatal border. We shouted to him, but it was too late —
"another guard would have a furlough," the men said. It
was a common belief among our men, arising from state
ments made by the guard, that General WINDER, in com
mand, issued an order that any one of the guard who should
shoot a Yankee outside of the " dead-line" should have a
month's furlough, but there probably was no truth in this.
About two a day were thus bhot, some being cases of suicide,
brought on by mental depression or physical misery, the
poor fellows throwing themselves, or madly rushing outside
the " line."

The mental condition of a large portion of the men was
melancholy, beginning in despondency and tending to a kind
of stolid and idiotic indifference. Many spent much time
in arousing and encouraging their fellows, but hundreds
were lying about motionless, or stalking vacantly to and
fro, quite beyond any help which could be given them
within their prison walls. These cases were frequent among

266 SUPPLEMENT.

those who had been imprisoned but a short time. There
were those who were captured at the first Bull Eun, July
1861, and had known Belle Isle from the first, yet had pre
served their physical and mental health to a wonderful
degree. Many were wise and resolute enough to keep them
selves occupied — some in cutting bone and wood ornaments,
making their knives out of iron hoops — others in manu
facturing ink from the rust from these same hoops, and with
rude pens sketching or imitating bank notes or any sample
that would involve long and patient execution.

Letters from home very seldom reached us, and few had
any means of writing. In the early summer, a large batch
of letters — five thousand we were told — arrived, having
been accumulating somewhere for many months. These
were brought into camp by an officer, under orders to
collect ten cents on each — of course most were returned,
1 and we heard no more of them. One of my companions
saw among them three from his parents, but he was unable
to pay the charge. According to the rules of transmission
of letters over the lines, these letters must have already
paid ten cents each to the rebel government.

As far as we saw General Winder and Captain Wirtz,
the former was kind and considerate in his manners, the
latter harsh, though not without kindly feelings.

It is a melancholy and mortifying fact, that some of our
trials came from our own men. At Belle Isle and Ander-
sonville there were among us a gang of desperate men,
ready to prey on their fellows. Not only thefts and
robberies, but even murders were committed. Affairs
became so serious at Camp oumter that an appeal was made
to General Winder, who authorized an arrest and trial by a
criminal court. Eighty-six were arrested, and six were
hung, beside others who were severely punished. These
proceedings effected a marked change for the better.

Some few weeks before being released, I was ordered to
act as clerk in the hospital. This consists simply of a,
low scattered trees and fly tents, and is in cliaigo of Dr.

SUFFERINGS OF UNION PRISONEKS AT ANDEKSONVILLE. 267

White, an excellent and considerate man, with very limited
means, but doing all in his power for his patients. He has
twenty-five assistants, besides those detailed to examine for
admittance to the hospital. This examination was made in
a small stockade attached to the main one, to the inside
door of which the sick came or were brought by their
comrades, the number to be removed being limited.
Lately, in consideration of the rapidly increasing sickness,
it was extended to one hundred and fifty daily. That this
was too small an allowance is shown by the fact that the
deaths within our stockade were from thirty to forty a day.
I have seen one hundred and fifty bodies waiting passage to
the " dead house," to be buried with those who died in hos
pital. The average of deaths through the earlier months was
thirty a day : at the time I left, the average was over one
hundred and thirty, and one day the record showed one
hundred and forty-six.

The proportion of deaths from starvation, not including
those consequent on the diseases originating in the char
acter and limited quantity of food, such as diarrhoea, dysen
tery and scurvy, I cannot state; but, to the best of my
knowledge, information and belief, there were scores every
month. We could, at any time, point out many for whom
such a fate was inevitable, as they lay or feebly walked,
mere skeletons, whose emaciation exceeded the examples
given in Leslie's Illustrated for June 18, 180-1. For ex
ample : in some cases the inner edges of the two bones of
the arms, between the elbow and the wrist, with the inter
mediate blood vessels, were plainly visible when held
toward the light. The ration, in quantity, was perhaps
barely sufficient to sustain life, and the cases of starvation
were generally those whose stomachs could not retain what
had become entirely indigestible.

For a man to find, on waking, that his comrade by his
side was dead, was an occurrence too common to be noted.
I have seen death in almost all the forms of the hospital
and battle-field, but the daily scenes in Camp Sumter

2 63 SUPPLEMENT.

exceeded in the extremity of misery all my previous experi
ence.

The work of burial is performed by our own men, under
guard and orders, twenty-five bodies being placed in a
single pit, without head-boards, and the sad duty performed
with indecent haste. Sometimes our men were rewarded
for this work with a few sticks of fire- wood, and I have
known them to quarrel over a dead body for the job.

Dr. White is able to give the patients a diet but little
better than the prison rations — a little flour porridge, arrow
root, whiskey and wild or hog tomatoes. In the way of
medicine, I saw nothing but camphor, whiskey, and a
decoction of some kind of bark — white oak, I think. He
often expressed his regret that he had not more medicines.
The limitation of military orders, under which the surgeon
in charge was placed, is shown by the following occurrence :
A supposed private, wounded in the thigh, was under treat
ment in the hospital, when it was discovered that he was a
major of a colored regiment. The assistant- surgeon, under
whose immediate charge he was, proceeded at once, not
only to remove him, but to kick him out, and he was
returned to the stockade, to shift for himself as well as he
could. Dr. White could not or did not attempt to restore
him.

After entering on my duties at the hospital, I was
occasionally favored with double rations and some wild
tomatoes. A few of our men succeeded, in spite of the
closest examination of our clothes, in secreting some green
backs, and with these were able to buy useful articles at
exorbitant prices : — a tea-cup of flour at one dollar ; eggs,
three to six dollars a dozen; salt, four dollars a pound;
molasses, thirty dollars a gallon; nigger beans, a small,
inferior article, (diet of the slaves and pigs, but highly
relished by us,) fifty cents a pint. These figures, multiplied
by ten, will give very nearly the price in Confederate
currency. Thouga the country abounded in pine and oak,
sticks were sM to us at various prices, according to size.

SUFFEEINGS OF UNION PKISONERS AT ANDERSONVILLE 269

Our men, especially the mechanics, were tempted with
the offer of liberty and large wages to take the oath of
allegiance to the Confederacy, but it was very rare that
their patriotism, even under such a fiery trial, ever gave
way. I carry this message from one of my companions to
his mother : " My treatment here is killing me, mother, but
I die cheerfully for my country."

Some attempts were made to escape, but wholly in vain,
for if the prison walls and guards were passed and the pro
tecting woods reached, the bloodhounds were sure to find
us out.

Tunneling was once attempted on a large scale, but on
the afternoon preceding the night fixed on for escape, an
officer rode in and announced to us that the plot was dis
covered, and from our huge pen we could see on the hill
above us the regiments just arriving to strengthen the
guard. We had been betraye/L It was our belief that
spies were kept in the camp, which could very easily be
done.

The number in camp when I left was nearly thirty-five
thousand, and daily increasing. The number in hospital was
about five thousand. I was exchanged at Port Eoyal Ferry,
August 16th.

PRESCOTT TRACY,

Eighty-second Regiment N. Y. V.

City and County of New York, ss.

H. C. HIGGINSON and S. NoiROT, being duly sworn, say:
That the above statement of Prescott Tracy, their fellow-
prisoner, agrees with their own knowledge and experience.

H. C. HIGGINSON,

Co. K., Nineteenth Illinois Voh.

SILVESTER NOIROT,

Co. B., Fifth New Jersey Voh.

THE MEMORIAL

OF THE

ONION PRISONERS CONFINED AT ANDERSONVILLE, GA.

TO TOE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

CONFEDERATE STATES PRISON",
CHARLESTON, S. C., August — , 1864.

To THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

Tho condition of the enlisted men belonging to the Union
armies, now prisoners to the Confederate rebel forces, is
such that it becomes our duty, and the duty of every com
missioned officer, to make known the facts in the case to the
Government- of the United States, and to use every honora
ble effort to secure a general exchange of prisoners, thereby
relieving thousands of our comrades from the horror now
surrounding them.

For some time past there has been a concentration of
prisoners from all parts of the rebel territory to the State
of Georgia — the commissioned officers being confined at
Macon, and the enlisted men at Andcrsonville. Kecent
movements of the Union armies under General Sherman
have compelled the removal of prisoners to other points,
and it is now understood that they will be removed to
Savannah, Georgia, and Columbus and Charleston, South
Carolina. But no change of this kind holds out any
prospect of relief to our poor men. Indeed, as the locali
ties selected are far more unhealthy, there must be an
increase rather than a diminution of suffering. Colonel

(271)

272 SUPPLEMENT.

Hill, provost marshal general, Confederate States army, at
Atlanta, stated to one of the undersigned that there Were
thirty-five thousand prisoners at Andersonville, and by all
accounts from the United States soldiers who have been
confined there the number is not overstated by him. These
thirty-five thousand are confined in a field of some thirty
acres, enclosed by a board fence, heavily guarded. About
one-third have various kinds of indifferent shelter; but
upwards of thirty thousand are wholly without shelter, or
even shade of any kind, and are exposed to the storms and
rains, which are of almost daily occurrence ; the cold dews
of the night, and the more terrible effects of the sun striking
with almost tropical fierceness upon their unprotected heads.
This mass of men jostle and and crowd each other up and
down the limits of their enclosure, in storms or 'sun, and
others lie down upon the pitiless earth at night with no
other covering than the clothing upon their backs, few of
them having even a blanket.

Upon entering the prison every man is deliberately
stripped of money and other property, and as no clothing
or blankets are ever supplied to their prisoners by the rebel
authorities, the condition of the apparel of the soldiers, just
from an active campaign, can be easily imagined. Thousands
are without pants or coats, and hundreds without even a
pair of drawers to cover their nakedness.

To these men, as indeed to all prisoners, there is issued
three-quarters of a pound of bread or meal, and one-eighth
of a pound of meat per day. This is the entire ration, and
upon it the prisoner must live or die. The meal is often
unsifted and sour, and the meat such as in the North is con
signed to the soapmaker. Such are the rations upon which
Union soldiers are fed by the rebel authorities, and by
•which they are barely holding on to life. But to starvation
and exposure to sun and storm, add the sickness which
prevails to a most alarming and terrible extent. On an
average, one hundred die dally. It is impossible that any
Union soldier should know all the facts pertaining to this

MEMORIAL TO THE PRESIDENT. 273

terrible mortality, as they are not paraded by the rebel
authorities. Such statement as the following, made by

, speaks eloquent testimony. Said he : " Of

twelve of us who were captured six died, four are in the
hospital, and I never expect to see them again. There are
but two of us left." In 1862, at Montgomery, Alabama,
under far more favorable circumstances, the prisoners being
protected by sheds, from one hundred and fifty to two hun
dred were sick from diarrhoea and chills, out of seven hun
dred. The same per centage would give seven thousand
sick at Andersonville. It needs no comment, no efforts at
word painting, to make such a picture stand out boldly in
most horrible colors.

Nor is this all. Among the ill-fated of the many who
have suffered amputation in consequence of injuries received
before capture, sent from rebel hospitals before their wounds
were healed, there are eloquent witnesses of the barbarities
of which they are victims. If to these flcts is added this,
that nothing more demoralizes soldiers and develops the evil
passions of man than starvation, the terrible condition of
Union prisoners at Andersonville can be readily imagined.
They are fast losing hope, and becoming utterly reckless of
life. Numbers, crazed by their sufferings, wander about in
a state of idiocy; others deliberately cross the "dead line,"
and are remorselessly shot down.

In behalf of these men we most earnestly appeal to the
President of the United States. Few of them have been
captured except in the front of battle, in the deadly en
counter, and only when overpowered by numbers. They
constitute as gallant a portion of oar armies as carry our
banners any where. If released, they would soon return to
again do vigorous battle for our cause. We are told that
the only obstacle in the way of exchange is the status of
enlisted negroes captured from our armies, the United States
claiming that the cartel covers all who serve under its flag,
and the Confederate States refusing to consider the colored

soldiers, heretofore slaves, as prisoners of war.

18

"274 SUPPLEMENT.

We beg leave to suggest some facts bearing upon the
question of exchange, which we would urge upon this con
sideration. Is it not consistent with the national honor,
without waiving the claim that the negro soldiers shall be
treated as prisoners of war, to effect an exchange of the
whije soldiers ? The two classes are treated differently by
the enemy. The whites are confined in such prisons as
Libby and Andersonville, starved and treated with a bar
barism unknown to civilized nations. The blacks, on the
contrary, are seldom imprisoned. They are distributed
among the citizens, or employed on government works.
Under these circumstances they receive enough to eat and
are worked no harder than they have been accustomed to be.
They are neither starved or killed off by the pestilence in the
dungeons of Richmond and Charleston. It is true they are
again made slaves ; but their slavery is freedom and happi
ness compared with the cruel existence imposed upon our
gallant men. They are not bereft of hope, as are the white
soldiers, dying by piece-meal. Their chances of escape are
tenfold greater than those of the white soldiers, and their
condition, in all its lights, is tolerable in comparison with
that of the prisoners of war now languishing in the dens
and pens of Secession.

While, therefore, believing the claims of our Government,
in matters of exchange, to be just, we are profoundly im
pressed with the conviction that the circumstances of the
two classes of soldiers are so widely ' different that the Gov
ernment can honorably consent to an exchange, waiving for
a time the established principle justly claimed to be appli
cable in the case. Let thirty -five thousand suffering, starving,
and dying enlisted men aid this appeal. By prompt and
decided action in their behalf thirty-five thousand heroes
will be made happy. For the eighteen hundred commis
sioned officers now prisoners we urge nothing. Although
desirous of returning to our duty, we can bear imprison
ment with more fortitude if the enlisted men, whose sufferings
we know to be intolerable, were restored to liberty and life.

THE EXCHANGE QUESTION.

Letter of Major-General Butler, United States

Commissioner of Exchange, to Col. Ould,

the Confederate Commissioner.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF

VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA,

IN THE FIELD, August — , 1864.

HON. EGBERT OULD,

Commissioner of Exchartge.

SIR : — Your note to Major Mulford, Assistant Agent of
Exchange, under date of 10th August, has been referred
to me.

You therein state that Major Mulford has several times
proposed " to exchange prisoners respectively held by the
two belligerents, officer for officer and man for man," and
that " the offer has also been made by other officials having
charge of matters connected with the exchange of prisoners,"
and that " this proposal has been heretofore declined by the
Confederate authorities." That you now "consent to the
above proposition, and agree to deliver to you (Major Mul
ford) the prisoners held in captivity by the Confederate
authorities, provided you agree to deliver an equal number
of officers and men. As equal numbers are delivered from
time to time, they will be declared exchanged. This pro
posal is made with the understanding that the officers and

(275)

276 SUPPLEMENT.

men on botli sides who have been longest in captivity will
be first delivered, where it is practicable."

From a slight ambiguity in your phraseology, but more,
perhaps, from the antecedent action of your authorities, and
because of your acceptance of it, I am in doubt whether
you have stated the proposition with entire accuracy.

It is true, a proposition was made both by Major Mulford
and by myself, as Agent of Exchange, to exchange all
prisoners of war taken by either belligerent party, man for
man, officer for officer, of equal rank, or their equivalents.
It was made by me as early as the first of the winter of
1863-64, and has not been accepted. In May last I for
warded to you a note, desiring to know whether the Con
federate authorities intended to treat colored soldiers of the
United States army as prisoners of war. To that inquiry
no answer has yet been made. To avoid all possible mis
apprehension or mistake hereafter as to your offer now, will
you now say whether you mean by " prisoners held in cap
tivity," colored men, duly enrolled, and mustered into the
service of the United States, who have been captured by
the Confederate forces; and if your authorities are willing
to exchange all soldiers so mustered into the United States
army, Avhether colored or otherwise, and the officers com
manding them, man for man, officer for officer ?

At the interview which was held between yourself and
the Agent of Exchange on the part of the United States, at
Fortress Monroe, in March last, you will do me the favor to
remember the principal discussion turned upon this very
point; you, on behalf of the Confederate Government
claiming the right to hold all negroes, who had heretofore
been slaves, and not emancipated by their masters, enrolled
and mustered into the service of the United States, when
captured by your forces, not as prisoners of war, but upon
capture to be turned over to their supposed masters or
claimants, whoever they might be, to be held by them as
slaves.

By the advertisements in your newspapers, calling upon

THE EXCH'ANGE QUESTION. 277

masters to come forward and claim these men so captured,
I suppose that your authorities still adhere to that claim —
that is to say, that whenever a colored soldier of the United
States is captured by you, upon whom- any claim can be
made by any person residing within the States now in insur
rection, such soldier is not to be treated as a prisoner of war,
but is to be turned over to his supposed owner or claimant,
and put at such labor or service as that owner or claimant
may choose, and the officers in command of such soldiers,
in the language of a supposed act of the Confederate States,
are to be turned over to the Governors of States, upon
requisitions, for the purpose of being punished by the laws
of sijph States, for acts done in war in the armies of the
United States.

You must be aware that there is still a proclamation by
Jefferson Davis, claiming to be Chief Executive of the
Confederate States, declaring in substance that all officers of
colored troops mustered into the service of the United
States were not to be treated as prisoners of war, but were
to be turned over for punishment to the Governors of
States.

I am reciting these public acts from memory, and will be
pardoned for not giving the exact words, although I believe
I do not vary the substance and effect.

These declarations on the part of those whom you repre
sent yet remain unrepealed, unannulled, unrevoked, and
must, therefore, be still supposed to be authoritative. By
your acceptance of 'our proposition, is the; Government of
the United States to understand that these several claims,
enactments, and proclaimed declarations are to be given up,
set aside, revoked, and held for naught by the Confederate
authorities, and that you are ready and willing to exchange
man for man those colored soldiers of the United States,
duly mustered and enrolled as such, who have heretofore
been claimed as slaves by the Confederate States, as well as
white soldiers ?

If this be so, and you are so willing to exchange these

278 SUPPLEMENT.

colored men claimed as slaves, and you will so officially
inform the Government of the United States, then, as I am
instructed, a principal difficulty in effecting exchanges will
be removed.

As I informed you personally, in my judgment, it is
neither consistent with the policy, dignity, or honor of the
United States, upon any consideration, to allow those who,
by our laws solemnly enacted, are made soldiers of the
Union, and who have been duly enlisted, enrolled and mus
tered as such soldiers, who have borne arms in behalf of this
country, and who have been captured while fighting in vin
dication of the rights of that country, not to be treated as
prisoners of war, and remain unexchanged, and i% the
service of those who claim them as masters ; and I cannot
believe that the Government of the United States will ever
be found to consent to so gross a wrong.

Pardon me if I misunderstood you in supposing that your
acceptance of our proposition does not -in good faith mean
to include all the soldiers of the Union, and that you still
intend, if your acceptance is agreed to, to hold the colored
soldiers of the Union unexchanged, and at labor or service,
because I am informed that very lately, almost contempo
raneously with this offer on your part to exchange prisoners
and which seems to include all prisoners of war, the Con
federate authorities have made a declaration that the negroes
heretofore held to service by owners in the States of Dela
ware, Maryland, and Missouri are to be treated as prisoners
of war, when captured in arms in the service of the United
States.

Such declaration that a part of the colored soldiers of the
United States were to be prisoners of war, would seem most
strongly to imply that others were not to be so treated, or
in other words, that the colored men from the insurrec
tionary States are to be held to labor and returned to their
masters, if captured by the Confederate forces while duly
enrolled and mustered into, and actually in the armies of the
United States.

THE EXCHANGE QUESTION. 279

In the view which the Government of the United States
takes of the claim made by you to the persons and services
of these negroes, it is not to be supported upon any prin
ciple of national and municipal law.

Looking upon these men only as property, upon your
theory of property in them, we do not see how this claim
can be made, certainly not how it can be yielded. It is
believed to be a well- settled rule of public international law,
and a custom and part of the laws of war, that the capture
of movable property vests the title to that property in the
captor, and therefore where one belligerent gets into full
possession property belonging to the subjects or citizens of
the other belligerent, the owner of that property is at once
divested of his title, which rests in the belligerent Govern
ment capturing and holding such possession. Upon this
rule of international law all civilized nations have acted,
and by it both belligerents have dealt with all property,
save slaves, taken from each other during the present war.

If the Confederate forces capture a number of horses
from the United States, the animals immediately are claimed
to be, and, as we understand it, become the property of the
Confederate authorities.

If the United States capture any movable property in the
rebellion, by our regulations and laws, in conformity with
international law, and the laws of war, such property if.-
turned over to our Government as its property. Therefore,
if we obtain possession of that species of property known
to the laws of the insurrectionary States as slaves, why
should there be any doubt that that property, like any other,
vests in the United States ?

If the property in the slave does so vest, then the ''jus
disp.onendi," the right of disposing of that property, rests in
the United States,

Now, the United States have disposed of the property
which they have acquired by capture in slaves taken by
them, by giving that right of property to the man himself,
to the slave, i. e. by emancipating him and declaring him

280 SUPPLEMENT.

free forever, so that if we have not mistaken the principles
of international law and the laws of war we have no slaves
in the armies of the United States. All are free men,
being made so in such manner as we have chosen to
dispose of our property in them which we acquired by
capture.

Slaves being captured by us, and the right of property in
them thereby vested in us, that right of property has been
disposed of by us by manumitting them, as has always been
the acknowledged right of the owner to do to his slave.
The manner in which we dispose of our property while it is
in our possession certainly cannot be questioned by you.

Nor is the case altered if the property is not actually
captured in battle, but comes either voluntarily or involun
tarily from the belligerent owner into the possession of the
other belligerent.

I take it no one would doubt the right of the United
States to a drove of Confederate mules, or a herd of Con
federate cattle, which should wander or rush across the Con
federate lines into the lines of the United'States army. So
it seems to me, treating the negro as property merely, if that
piece of property passes the Confederate lines, and comes
into the lines of the United States, that property is as much
lost to its owner in the Confederate States as would be the
mule or ox, the property of the resident of the Confederate
States, which should fall into our hands.

If, therefore, the privilege of international law and the
laws of war used in this discussion are correctly stated, then
it would seem that the deduction logically flows therefrom,
in natural sequence, that the Confederate States can have no
claim upon the negro soldiers captured by them from the
armies of the United States, because of the former owner
ship of them by their citizens or subjects, and only claim
such as result, under the laws of war, from their captor
merely.

Do the Confederate authorities claim the right to reduce
to a state of slavery free men, prisoners of war captured

THE EXCHANGE QUESTION. 281

by them? This claim our fathers fought against under
Bainbridge and Decatur, when set up by the Barbary
Powers on the northern shore of Africa, about the year
1800, and in 1864: their children will hardly yield it upon
their own soil.

This point I will not pursue further, because I understand
you. to repudiate the idea that you will reduce free men to
slaves because of capture in war, and that you base the
claim, of the Confederate authorities to re-enslave our negro
soldiers, when captured by you, upon the "jus post limini"
or that principle of the law of nations which inhabilitates'
the former owner with his property taken by an enemy,
when such property is recovered by the forces of his own
country.

Or in other words, you claim that, by the laws of nations
and of war, when property of the subjects of one bellige
rent power, captured by the forces of the other belligerent,
is recaptured by the armies of the former owner, then such
property is to be restored to its prior possessor, as if it had
never been captured, and, therefore, under this principle
your authorities propose to restore to their masters the
slaves which heretofore belonged to them which you may
capture from us.

But this post liminary right under which you claim to
act, as understood and defined by all writers on national
law, is applicable simply to immovable property, and that too,
only after the complete resubjugation of that portion of the
country in which the property is situated, upon which this
right fastens itself. By the laws and customs of war, this
right has never been applied to movable property.

True, it is I believe, that the Eomans attempted to apply
it to the case of slaves, but for two thousand years no other
nation has attempted to set up this right as ground for
treating slaves differently from other property.

But the Eomans even refused to re-enslave men captured
from opposing belligerents in a civil war, such as ours
unhappily is.

282 SUPPLEMENT.

Consistently then with any principle of the law of nations,
treating slaves as property merely, it would seem to be im
possible for the Government of the United States to permit
the negroes in their ranks to be re-enslaved when captured,
or treated otherwise than as prisoners of war.

I have forborne, sir, in this discussion, to argue the ques
tion upon any other or different grounds of right than those
adopted by your authorities in claiming the negro as pro
perty, because I understand that your fabric of opposition
to the Government of the United States has the right of
property in man as its corner-stone. Of course it would
not be profitable in settling a question of exchange of
prisoners of war to attempt to argue the question of abandon
ment of the very corner-stone of their attempted political
edifice. Therefore I have admitted all the considerations
which should apply to the negro soldier as a man, and dealt
with him upon the Confederate" theory of property only.

I unite with you most cordially, sir, in desiring a speedy
settlement of all these questions, in view of the great suffer
ing endured by our prisoners in the hands of your authori
ties, of which you so feelingly speak. Let me ask, in view
of that suffering, why you have delayed eight months to
answer a proposition which by now accepting you admit to
be right, just, and humane, allowing that suffering to con
tinue so long ? One cannot help thinking, even at the risk
of being deemed uncharitable, that the benevolent sympa
thies of the Confederate authorities have been lately stirred
by the depleted condition of their armies, and a desire to
get into the field, to affect the present campaign, the hale,
hearty, and well-fed prisoners held by the United States in
exchange for the half-starved, sick, emaciated, and unser
viceable soldiers of the United States now languishing in
your prisons. The events of this war, if we did not know
it before, have taught us that it is not the Northern portion
of the American people alone who know how to drive sharp
bargains.

The wrongs, indignities, and privations suffered by our

THE EXCHANGE QUESTION. 283

soldiers would move me to consent to anything to procure
their exchange, except to barter away the honor and faith
of the Government of the United States, which has been so
solemnly pledged to the colored soldiers in its ranks.

Consistently with national faith and justice we cannot
relinquish this position. "With your authorities it is a ques
tion of property merely. It seems to address itself to you
in this form. Will you suffer your soldier,, captured in
fighting your battles, to be in confinement for months rather
than release him by giving for him that which you call ?
piece of property, and which we are willing to accept as a
man?

You certainly appear to place less value upon your
soldier than you do upon your negro. I assure you, much
as we of the North are accused of loving property, our
citizens would have no difficulty in yielding up any piece
of property they have in exchange for one of their brothers
or sons languishing in your prisons. Certainly there could
be no doubt that they would do so were that piece of pro
perty less in value than five thousand dollars in Confederate
money, which is believed to be the price of an able-bodied
negro in the insurrectionary States.

Trusting that I may receive such a reply to the questions
propounded in this note, as will tend to a speedy resumption
cf the negotiations in a full exchange of all prisoners, and
a delivery of them to their respective authorities.
I have the honor to be,

Yery Kespectfully,

Your Obedient Servant,

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER,

Major-General and Commissioner of Exchange

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